Over The Moon
by wavingthroughawindow
Summary: A series of themed ficlets, written for TLC Ship Weeks, featuring the entire Rampion crew. Lots of fluff and drabbles! Complete.
1. The Shoes

**A/N: Hi everyone! This is the first in a series of one-shots I'll be writing for TLC Ship Weeks. There will be about ten to fifteen one-shots in the series. While I won't actually be posting these to the Tumblr, since I don't have one, I'm still having a lot of fun with them, and I hope you enjoy them!**

 **Disclaimer: The Lunar Chronicles belong to Marissa Meyer.**

* * *

 **Pairing: Jacinter**

 **Theme: Detectives**

* * *

"Let's play a game," Winter said, sitting on the bed and crossing her legs.

"The Princess and the Guard?" Jacin replied, eyes lighting up. Their fathers were away on assignment, and it was hard not to worry about something happening to them. On Luna, the threat could come from anywhere, within or without. She knew they both needed the distraction, and she knew he would be grateful for it.

"No, I thought we would try something else," Winter said, grinning. Oh, this was going to be good. Bouncing on her pillows, she looked him in the eyes, face glowing.

"Well?" he prompted after a minute. "What is it?"

"I thought we could play…"

"Yes?"

"Detectives."

"How would that work?" he asked her.

"Well, I am still a princess, and someone has stolen my shoes." Winter shrugged. "The two of us shall look all over the palace for clues and find them. But we have to be careful, we mustn't let ourselves get caught by anyone."

"Where are these shoes?"

"Well, it wouldn't be very fun if I knew, would it?" She winked. "I lost them last week. You remember the black, sparkly ones?"

"With five inches of heel? How could I forget?" he said teasingly. "The number of times you almost tripped and I caught you…"

"I am not afraid of falling, Jacin, because you will catch me," Winter declared, eliciting the smallest of smiles from Jacin.

"If that's what it takes to protect you, then always," Jacin replied. "Now, shall we find these shoes or what?"

"Let's go, Detective Clay."

* * *

"But Detective Hayle, surely they aren't in the throne room?" He gave Winter an incredulous look.

"We won't know if we don't check, Detective Clay," Winter replied, winking at him. "Besides, even if they aren't there, we might see clues. Footprints, for instance."

"Surely we can avoid it?" Jacin said pleadingly. "If Queen Levana catches us sneaking around…"

"I'll make sure she doesn't hurt us," Winter said confidently. "Besides, she won't catch _us_ , Detectives Hayle and Clay, best private investigators on Luna!"

He snorted. "Winter, unfortunately, you might be right on that one." She giggled. As far as she knew, Luna didn't even have detectives.

"Exactly. So shall we go in now?"

"Let's review," he said. "We didn't find them in your room or your dad's room, or anywhere between your section of the palace and the throne room. We've decided against snooping around in your stepmother's room because she would quite literally kill us. We certainly haven't found any matching footprints anywhere, but we did spot a little bit of glitter on our way here."

"Glitter?" she frowned. "You think it's from the shoes?"

"Well, we can't be certain, but it is a start."

"Right, Detective Clay. Now let's go check the throne room."

"Fine," Jacin grunted. "But after this, we're looking around the gardens."

She nodded at him, and together they crept into the throne room, trying to move silently. She could still hear his shoes as they hit the tiled floor. _Clomp, clomp, clomp, clomp_. Her own feet felt unnaturally sticky, and her movements felt slow. It sounded quiet enough to her, but she had to hope Levana wouldn't hear.

As they approached the throne, Levana's voice got louder. She was talking with one of the thaumaturges - _Sybil Mira -_ about something. The two appeared to be in a heated debate.

"I really think he's served his purpose, my queen. He's rather old and decrepit, and there are so many others we could replace him with."

"Perhaps… but he knows far too many of our secrets. Besides, back in his time, he wasn't top of his class for no reason. I think we can find a use for him yet."

"Are you sure, Your Majesty? Wouldn't it be easier to eliminate him?" She shivered. _Elimination_ was far too common on Luna. Whoever the poor man was, she felt sorry for him. She squeezed Jacin's hand. A second later, he squeezed back.

"Evret disapproves of all the blood we spill here. I have to keep him happy, you know. Just this once, we can find another accommodation." _Evret_. Her father. Always talking some sense into the queen. She smiled, taking a deep breath in. It tickled her nose.

"If you insist, Your Majesty…" Oh, no, oh, no, oh, no no no. She felt a sneeze coming on and there was nothing she could do about it. _Come on, Winter, hold it in…_

"I knew you'd see light. Now, as for reassignment…"

Winter sneezed, then covered her mouth. Levana's voice fell silent. _Oh, no, Winter, what have you done?_ She looked apologetically at Jacin, but there was no ire in his expression.

"Who's there?" she called.

Jacin pressed a finger to his lips. Winter gave him a nod, and the two of them scrambled behind the throne, out of Levana's sight. They sat down and she tucked her knees into her chest. Breathlessly, they looked at each other and grinned. They had escaped.

"Ah, well. Must have been the wind. Now, as I was saying…"

They started arguing again, and Jacin put his mouth to Winter's ear and murmured, "Well done, Detective Hayle. Did you pick up any clues?"

"No footprints, no glitter, and no shoes," she whispered back, putting her head on his shoulder. "That was a close call. But I always knew we could do it."

He made no effort to shrug her off. "Should we go check the gardens, then?"

"Wait," she said. "I like this. We're sitting behind Levana, and she doesn't know we're here. We really are amazing detectives, are we not?"

He nodded and smiled at her. "Detectives Hayle and Clay, best private investigators in Luna. We can even evade royal scrutiny!" She smiled back.

"… and something really must be done about that wind," Levana finished. "It's simply intolerable. Please let someone know that the windows will have to be improved."

She looked at Jacin, smile widening. She felt the laughter trying to escape her, and finally gave in, letting the silent laughs shake her body. _Improve the windows._ Jacin's eyes shone with amusement as well. She gripped his hand for support. He squeezed back, and pulled her into an embrace. This was their secret, and no one could take it away from them.

He raised an eyebrow. "To the gardens?" he whispered.

"I think so, Detective Clay," Winter replied, her laughter finally subsiding. She took a deep breath, then looked at Jacin. Just making eye contact with him was enough to make her burst out laughing all over again. They quickly scrambled to the gardens before it became all too audible.

* * *

"Well, Detective Hayle, I would say we've had a productive day. Though we did not find your shoes, we did manage to evade the sight of every single person who lives in the palace, including the queen."

Winter was lying in the garden, completely sprawled out. She knew her hair and dress would have stains on them, but she didn't care. She was a ray of sunshine, and nothing and no one could contain her happiness. She looked up at all the trees, watching the leaves shimmer. _So much green…_ As she gazed at the leaves, a small object caught her eye.

"Don't be so quick, Detective Clay," she smiled.

He looked at her quizzically and she grinned. "I think I see my shoes. Among the treetops."

His gasp was loud, for effect. "It can't be!"

She squinted, looking closer at the small, black object. Yup, those were her shoes, no doubt. So why was Jacin acting so dramatic?

"Waaaaiiit a second. You knew they were there, didn't you?" She sat up and looked at him. He smiled sheepishly. Guilty.

"Did you hide them?" she asked.

He nodded once. "I knew you'd find them eventually. For now, I figured it would be easier for _all_ of us if you stuck to slightly more utilitarian shoes."

"Well, we can see how that worked out," she winked, wiggling her toes.

"No shoes?" He sighed. "I guess this means I must help you watch your step, Princess."

"Don't worry about me," she smiled playfully. "I can watch my step just fine. You have done enough protecting for the day, Jacin. Now, shall we get those shoes?"

He looked at her and grinned. "Race you there."

* * *

 **Hope you liked it! Please review, it means the world to me as an author! Thanks for reading!**


	2. The Chocolate

**Thanks to sparkleerose, 1221bookworm, Guest, and Anonymoustlcfan (Guest) for reviewing!**

 **sparkleerose: Thank you so much! I'm so glad you liked it! I hope you like this one!**

 **1221bookworm: Thank you! I'm glad you felt they were in character - young Jacin and Winter isn't something I'm very used to writing. I hope you like this one!**

 **Guest: Thank you so much! :) That means a lot to me!**

 **Anonymoustlcfan: I'm so, so glad you liked it! Thank you so much for your kind words!**

 **So here's the second drabble! This was mainly born out of my love for chocolate, and the fact that I always associate the word bittersweet with chocolate. I hope you enjoy it!**

 **Disclaimer: The Lunar Chronicles belong to Marissa Meyer.**

* * *

 **Pairing: Jacinter**

 **Prompt: Bittersweet**

* * *

"A chocolate factory?" Jacin tilted his head to one side.

"It'll be fun!" Winter said, wrapping an arm around Jacin. "I'm going back to Luna tomorrow, you're staying on Earth for med school. I thought we could spend one last day together." She smiled wistfully.

"Yeah, but why a chocolate factory?"

"Everybody likes chocolate," Winter shrugged. Jacin couldn't argue with that.

"You know, I'm pretty sure there's still some crazy left in you," he remarked. _And I can never get enough of it._ She brushed her shoulder against him, the unspoken words clear in both of their minds.

"Let's go," was her only response.

* * *

Winter was slumped on the couch, having finally completed their tour of the factory. In front of them was a chocolate fountain which was almost as tall as the Rampion. Smooth, creamy chocolate cascaded down the fountain, creating a thin curtain. Behind the fountain was a gift shop, which Jacin was perusing the shelves of.

"Here," Jacin said, sitting down next to Winter and handing her a silvery gift bag.

She looked at him quizzically. "Why are you getting me a gift? You're the one who is going to college, I should be getting you a gift."

"I'm going to miss you, Princess," Jacin murmured.

"After everything we've been through, I should hope so," she said, giving him a half-smile.

"If something happens to you, I will never be able to forgive myself."

"Jacin," she said. "You said you would protect me until the day I was no longer a princess in need of protection. It has been an _eternity_ , but that day has finally come. Please, go do what you love. I will take care of myself."

He grunted. "I'm still making sure Cinder keeps an eye on you."

"Of course," she grinned at him. "Now, shall I give you your gift?"

"You didn't -" he started, but she cut him off.

"Actually, I did have to get you this. How could I not get a gift for my protector, confidant, and best friend?"

"Best friend?" he said. His face betrayed no emotion, but she knew what he was thinking.

"And so much more," she replied, kissing him on the forehead. She reached behind her and grabbed a gold, sparkly gift bag, similar to the one Jacin had given her. She handed it to him, but not before taking something from it.

"I saw that," he said, giving her a stern look, but there was no ire in it.

"Open your mouth," Winter said, taking the piece of chocolate she had taken from his bag. He looked uncertain, but after a couple moments, his mouth opened. She placed the chocolate inside his mouth.

He looked at her, grimacing, but it soon turned into an easy smile. "Bittersweet," he said, the chocolate still on his tongue.

She nodded. "You were expecting sweet, right?"

He shrugged, and she knew she had guessed right. "Why bittersweet?" he asked.

"It's delicious," she said. "At first taste, it might not taste as… sweet as milk chocolate. But as you continue eating it, you realize how well the tastes complement each other. Not too sweet, not too bitter. It's," she shrugged, "the only chocolate that is _real_."

He frowned. "You're talking about me, aren't you?"

"So few people actually bother looking past all the masks you put up. If they did, they would all see you the way I do," Winter said.

"Well, it's a good thing they aren't, because I only want one person to look at me _like that_." The look he gave her was full of intensity, and stars, she wanted _him._ He pulled her into an embrace, and she pressed her lips to his.

After an eternity, they broke apart. Breathless and flushed, they grinned at each other.

"Do you know, I got you bittersweet chocolate as well?" Jacin mused.

"Do you have a metaphor for me as well?" she challenged.

"Not really," he replied. "But everything about today has been bittersweet. I'm leaving behind the person I love most, but I'm also starting something new. It's both an end, and a beginning. A goodbye, but also a promise."

"A promise." Her eyes twinkled. "I have one as well. What is your promise?"

"Every time I'm having a bad day, or just need to be picked up, I will eat this chocolate, and think of you." He pulled her close.

"Jacin Clay, that is exactly what I was going to say," Winter laughed.

"Wow," he said. "We'll be connected through the chocolate, then?"

"We will be miles away, but we will still be connected, through chocolate, love, and so much more."


	3. The Date

**Thank you to 1221bookworm and Anonymoustlcfan (Guest) for reviewing!**

 **1221bookworm: Thank you so much! I wasn't sure about that metaphor, but I really wanted to include it, because I love bittersweet chocolate so much. :) I hope you like this chapter!**

 **Anonymoustlcfan: Thank you so much! That line surprised me, so I'm really glad you liked it! I hope you like this one!**

 **This piece is a collab with my dear friend, AvocadoGoddess. It is significantly longer than the other ones, and is also incredibly cliche and as fluffy as cotton candy. I hope you enjoy it! Please review!**

* * *

 **Pairing: Jacinter/Cresswell**

 **Theme: Non-themed**

* * *

It wasn't snowing, but for SoCal, Winter and Iko had decided that heavy rain was close enough. And so Cress found herself on a (very comfortable) sofa along with four of her closest friends, settling in for a Marvel movie marathon.

This, inevitably, led to a discussion about the hotness of each Marvel guy respectively, which in turn led to quite a bit of pillow-throwing as the took sides, and then, as was likely to happen, a full-on pillow war, which (unsurprisingly) Cinder and Scarlet won.

"I still think," Iko said, when relative peace had been reinstated, "that Steve Rogers is way hotter than Thor."

"He is pretty cute," Cress agreed.

This was met with several dirty looks.

"What? It's obviously the truth!" Iko protested.

A pillow was violently thrown.

"Oh, shut up," said Cinder, the thrower of the pillow, "I can't hear the movie."

There was silence for an entire minute.

"I have an idea," Iko announced.

"Iko!" Cinder shushed, grabbing another pillow. Iko took refuge behind Winter.

"But it's a good idea!"

"Loki is onscreen! Is your idea more important than Tom Hiddleston?!"

Cress hid her grin behind the bag of popcorn she was hoarding.

She loved these maniacs.

Onscreen, Loki was taunting Nick Fury: "It burns you to have-"

His voice was abruptly cut off when Iko pressed pause and then, foreseeing an attempt made by Cinder to regain control of the remote, promptly sat on it.

Cinder gave a sigh of frustration.

"You know what we should do?" Iko asked once more.

"Hmm," said Scarlet with mock-thoughtfulness, "maybe... watch the movie we agreed to see?"

"Touché," Iko grinned, "but other than that."

The debate continued, but Cress tuned it out in order to enjoy her snacks in peace.

"Cress! What do you think?"

The girl in question blinked.

Winter seemed to have joined the conversation (whatever it was about now) with considerable enthusiasm, and now she and Iko were looking expectantly at her.

Cinder rolled her eyes and began scrolling through her Tumblr feed.

"What do I think about what?" Cress asked cautiously.

"About letting us set you up with another guy! It's been six months, Cress," Iko nudged her in the rib cage.

"Ugh, please," Cress snorted, "after that guy I've lost faith in all men. I've given up on dating. Let me die a crazy cat lady."

"One bad experience and you give up?"

"Literally every time you try to set me up with someone, they turn out to be completely awful."

"She's right," put in Scarlet, "remember that one who tried to explain all the dishes on the menu in the French restaurant to her, even though she speaks French and was an exchange student for a little bit? He didn't know anything about the country."

"Or the one who got drunk right before the date?" asked Cinder sardonically.

"Or," said Cress with an air of finality, "the one who _introduced me to his girlfriend who was sitting in his car when he came by to pick me up?!_ "

Winter squeezed Cress's arm reassuringly.

"Okay, those ones were pretty bad," Iko agreed. Cinder scoffed derisively.

" _But_ ," Iko continued, "this one will be way better. I promise."

Cress made a skeptical noise and returned to her popcorn. To be honest, she'd always wished to meet someone like those princes in fairy tales, the ones who were charming and selfless and heroic, but the real guys she had dated so far had been a far cry from them.

"Who are you thinking of?" Cinder finally took the bait and asked.

Iko grinned devilishly. "I'm so glad you asked! The Captain, of course."

Cinder's brows flicked upward and Winter let out a giggle of hilarity.

Cress glanced from one to the other. "Should I be worried?"

* * *

Cinder let herself and Iko into Thorne's apartment with the key she had stolen from him five months earlier. Classic rock music came from the direction of his bedroom. Pausing in front of the closed door, Cinder glanced at Iko.

"I pray that he's fully clothed."

With that, she tested the handle, finding it unlocked. "Thorne? Iko and I are coming in."

"This is my private man-cave!" he protested. "You're not allowed."

"Don't lie, Thorne," Cinder said, pushing open the door and walking in. "We all know that I'm much more manly than you are."

* * *

"You want me to do what?" Thorne asked.

"One date," Iko cajoled. "One fancy dinner."

"Winter and Jacin will be there as well," Cinder said, "in case anything goes wrong."

"Excuse me?" Thorne scoffed. "A date with me never goes wrong."

"Oh, please," Cinder rolled her eyes.

"Can we get back to the topic?" Iko pushed her way into the argument brewing. "It's going to be a really nice dinner with Cress."

"What sort of a name is Cress?"

"Better than Carswell," Cinder muttered.

"Hey, don't diss the name!" he protested.

"Anyway, Cress is one of our close friends. She's really sweet and hilarious. I think you'll like her!" Iko interjected. "Please, Thorne," she said, noting the skeptical look on his face. "Cress has lost faith in all men after the terrible dates she's been on. You need to redeem your gender!"

Cinder snorted. "I think we've got the wrong guy for the job."

Iko smacked her. "Stop antagonizing each other. But yeah, please don't flirt with every pretty girl you see."

"Basically, don't do anything you would normally do," Cinder suggested.

"Excuse me? There is a _reason_ they call me a relationship expert!"

"Yeah, an expert in relationship failures."

"Shut up."

Iko took a deep inhale in. "Both of you, be quiet. I don't know when I became the responsible one around here, but we need to figure this out. Thorne, will you go on the date with Cress?"

Thorne sighed. "You're lucky my Friday evening is free."

"Took you long enough," Iko scowled. "You better not mess this one up, Captain."

"Since when do ever mess things up?"

Cinder opened her mouth for a retort of some kind, but Iko had slipped out of the room before she could hear it.

* * *

"Hey guys! What's up?" Thorne said, striding up to their table.

Cress's first impression was that he was incredibly handsome, with that chiseled jawline and dreamy blue eyes. But experience had taught her that when looking for a soulmate, looks meant very little. Still, she actually hoped he would turn out to be a somewhat decent person.

"Jacin! You actually dressed up? Dude, you look great!" He attempted to pull him into one of those bro-hug things, but Jacin crossed his arms and pivoted slightly.

"Great to see you too, Thorne," he said.

Thorne sat down in front of her. "Ah, you must be Crescent, my date! Spades, Iko and Cinder really know how to pick them."

"Call me Cress," she said, plastering a smile on her face. She wasn't sure she liked his attitude very much. From what she could tell, he seemed to be rather cocky and arrogant, and she certainly did not want to date another sexist douche who indulged in mansplaining every five minutes.

"Winter, you're looking gorgeous as always… did I mention I _love_ your dress - OW! Jacin, there was no need to poke so hard!" He looked indignant.

"Stop flirting with my girlfriend," Jacin said, his voice dangerously low.

"Okay, okay, jeez," he said, throwing his hands up. "I wasn't really flirting that hard…" He trailed off when he saw Jacin's expression.

"Anyway, a Thai place! This is going to be delicious! Surprisingly, they have chocolate mousse here. I've heard it's to die for…"

"I've heard that, too," Cress admitted, looking down at her plate. "It said so in the New York Times."

"Ey, you read the New York Times too? High five!" He held his hand up, and Cress slapped it after a moment's hesitation. He _did_ read prestigious newspapers. Maybe he wasn't all that bad.

But the rest of the evening passed in a haze. Thorne was only interested in talking to Winter and Jacin, and even then it was _Ten Great Flights Made By The Amazing Captain Thorne._ He flirted with all the waitresses, servers, and even random women sitting on the tables next to him. Every woman who entered the room was flirted with except for her, his actual date.

The only memorable part of the evening was the food. It _was_ every bit as amazing as the Times had made it out to be. She wasn't able to eat Thai food often, but _stars_ , it was so good.

"Good food, eh?" Thorne asked her. She nodded. "You've been very quiet this evening. Normally my dates are giggling and blushing all over me."

"I guess I'm not the damsel in distress you imagined me to be," she replied coldly.

"What, did you imagine I was some sort of prince?" he said. "Because honey, you are going to be sorely disappointed." The words were casual, joking, but she sensed pain in them. Like maybe, beneath his cocky demeanor, was a man who didn't think very much of himself at all. It still didn't excuse his attitude, though.

She had no response to his words, and he had nothing else to say. She fell into an awkward silence, while he turned to Winter once more.

* * *

"What shall we have for dessert, ladies and gentlemen?" The server's voice pulled Cress out of her thoughts. _Dessert. Finally._ She released a breath of air she hadn't known she had been holding.

"One chocolate mousse, please," she said, smiling.

"I'll have one as well," Thorne said, grinning mischievously at the waiter. "By the way, did I tell you I _love_ your hairstyle? You look almost as good as me today."

"For you, sir, dessert will be on the house!" she replied, blushing, while Cress groaned. Why did he have to flirt with every single girl he saw, except for her? For crying out loud, she was the one on the date with him!

"I'll have a chamomile tea, please," Winter replied.

Thorne frowned. "Live a little, Winter!" he said. Winter shook her head, but Cress had to agree with Thorne. Who had _tea_ for dessert?

"Nothing for me, thank you," Jacin said, ever the epitome of the perfect gentleman. Thorne rolled his eyes.

"All right, two chocolate mousses and one chamomile tea," the server said.

"That's correct, gorgeous," Thorne said, yielding another round of blushing from her.

The waiter walked off, and Winter turned to Thorne. "Why did you have to flirt with her so much?"

"Hey, it got me free mousse," Thorne said. "Which, by the way, I'm giving to Cress. She doesn't have to pay."

Cress gaped at him. This whole date, he hadn't even seemed to notice her, and now he was giving her a free mousse?

"Thanks?" she squeaked.

"It was the least I could do. You haven't really said much this evening." He shrugged. "I figured you weren't enjoying yourself, which is probably my fault, seeing as I'm your date. I assume you haven't been charmed by me yet?"

She _did_ find him somewhat charming, rather handsome, _and_ not as heartless as she had first thought, but she wasn't going to admit that. "Well, thanks for the mousse," she said.

He leaned in conspiratorially. "I've heard it's to die for. Winter and Jacin are missing out."

"Me, too," Cress laughed. She glanced over at Winter, who was whispering something to Jacin and grinning impishly. Jacin, being Jacin, responded with an eye roll.

"It can't be better than Scarlet's lemon cake, though," Thorne said.

"Oh my goodness! You've had that, too? Scarlet's lemon cake is _heavenly_." She sighed. "She makes it for all of our birthdays."

"Wow," Thorne remarked, impressed. "I've only had it at Cinder and Iko's birthday parties. How did you two meet, anyway?"

"High school," Cress explained. "She was a couple grades above me, but Winter knew her. How about you?"

"Through Cinder," Thorne said. "To be quite honest, she still scares me sometimes."

" _Scarlet's_ not scary," Cress scoffed. "No more than Cinder."

"Cinder is terrifying!" Thorne protested. "She's blackmailed me before!"

"No doubt with good reason," Cress said, and she saw his face flicker. Was that _respect_ she had seen? No, it couldn't be… why would he respect her now?

"Here you are!" the server said, shaking Cress out of her thoughts. "Two chocolate mousses, one on the house! Plus a chamomile tea." She gave everyone the treat belonging to them, respectively. "By the way," she added, looking at Thorne, "I might be able to get you some deals here. Why don't you give me your number?"

Thorne suddenly looked very uncomfortable. "Uh, thanks, but I'd rather pay full price, you know, to give you guys business?"

"Oh. Okay." The server looked slightly disappointed and walked away, leaving Cress to wonder. Had he rejected her because of some obligation he felt to _Cress?_

Winter took a sip of her tea. "Delicious. How's your mousse?"

She stuck her spoon in and pulled it out, brimming with the creamy substance. "Almost as good as Scarlet's lemon cake," she sighed, "but not quite." It was every bit as amazing as the news articles had made it out to be.

"That good?" Winter looked shocked. "Can I try some?"

"Of course," Cress said, handing the mousse to her. Winter took a bite and let out a long sigh.

"That was marvelous," she said, handing it to Cress. "But you're right. It isn't as good as Scarlet's lemon cake."

"Toast?" Thorne asked her, holding up his cup, which was still full of mousse. "Oh, I see you've already started eating yours. Pity."

"It's okay, we can still toast," she laughed, holding up her cup and clinking it with his. "To more such meals like this!"

"Many more," he agreed, digging his spoon in. "Hey, I don't know what you're talking about. This is _better_ than Scarlet's lemon cake!"

"You clearly haven't had it in a while then," Cress said.

"I guess not," Thorne shrugged, "but it is delicious." She nodded, and they fell into an awkward silence. Well, not too awkward, she thought. There was still the mousse.

At length, he spoke. "Hey, uh, Cress?"

Hearing Thorne stumble over a word was like hearing Jacin laugh. "What?"

He looked at her, somewhat sheepishly. "I - I know this date didn't quite go the way you wanted it to. Can we, uh, try again some some time?"

"Yeah. Of course." The words tumbled out of her mouth before she had time to think. It _had_ been a mediocre date, at best. She wouldn't have considered a second date, had he not asked. She was sure he had felt similarly, so why was he asking? And why had she agreed?

Relief flooded his face. "I take it I am amazing, handsome, and charming then?"

"Better than chocolate mousse," she winked, finishing the last of her dessert.

"Cress, let's not say things we don't mean." He grinned.

She felt a tap on her shoulder and turned. It was Winter.

"Good date?" she whispered.

"Eh," Cress said softly, hoping Thorne wouldn't hear her. "It was okay. The food was delicious, though."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Winter said. "So no second date?"

"Actually… I kind of just agreed to one," she said sheepishly.

"Cress!" Winter said a little too loudly, then lowered her voice again. "Don't agree to second dates if you don't want them!"

"No. I - I think I actually want this." She wasn't confident in her own words, but maybe there was more to him than she had seen so far. She wasn't sure, but she was willing to give him a second chance.

"Okay, whatever you want! He does seem quite charming," Winter said with a wink, then she turned back to Jacin.

She turned back to Thorne and he said, "You were talking about me, weren't you?"

She thought about lying, but decided on a partial truth. "I've dated a lot of horrible guys. I was just telling Winter that compared to them, you're actually not bad."

"Only _not bad_!" he said indignantly. "I think I am more than _not bad_ , honey!"

Her eyes narrowed. "Don't _honey_ me. Just because I'm agreeing to a second date, doesn't give you the right to act like I'm your girlfriend."

He raised his eyebrows, and she thought she saw a flash of hurt in his eyes. She was about to say something, but before she could, she heard a slight swishing to her right. She looked over; Winter and Jacin had risen from their seats and were now kissing.

"Okay, Romeo and Juliet, let's get going. Cress and I are done with our mousses, and clearly Juliet is done with her tea."

"Drop the analogy, it sucks," Jacin growled, pulling away from Winter. He looked apologetically at her.

"Cress, it was a pleasure meeting you," Thorne held out his hand. "You have my number?"

"Yes." She gave him a genuine smile. "I'll… call you, I guess?"

"If I don't call you first," he winked. "Consider it a contest." She grinned. He was turning out to be considerably more adorkable than she had anticipated.

"You can count on losing," she said with a smile.


	4. The Flight

**Thanks to linithamonre77 for reviewing!**

 **linithamonre77: Thank you so much! I'm so glad you liked it!**

 **Here's the next one-shot! Initially for this was going to be Cress piloting the Rampion, but I wanted to try something slightly different, and less already-done. Hence, this story was born. It is a** ** _very_** **loose interpretation of the prompt, but I had a lot of fun writing it, and I hope you enjoy it! One disclaimer: I have never actually flown before (duh), so I have no idea how scientifically accurate this is, but hopefully it's okay! Please review!**

 **Disclaimer: TLC belongs to Marissa Meyer.**

* * *

 **Pairing: Cresswell**

 **Theme: Aviator**

* * *

"You're saying that for your anniversary, you and Cress are going to put on golden _wings_ and _fly_ over Los Angeles? Tell me how this is safe." Cinder looked at Thorne. She was on the Rampion again, for a brief visit, and as usual, Thorne was impressing his idiocy on her.

"They're not _golden wings_ , they're made out of a high-technology lightweight and strong fabric! They just happen to look like golden wings!" Thorne retorted. "And LA is perfectly safe! Besides, Cress is looking forward to it, aren't you, Cress?"

"I am a little nervous, but yes, I am excited," she admitted. "We're going to be the first people ever to do this!"

Cinder narrowed her eyes. "You're testing out a prototype for your anniversary?"

"Hey, we've already done the controlled-environment flying boot camp! We're ready for something bigger and better!" Thorne said indignantly. "Gosh, Cinder, I thought you would be all for this!"

"I just don't want you to kill your girlfriend. You've stayed together with her for a year now, don't make the first day of the new year be the last day of her life."

"Relax, Cinder, we've already saved the world once already. Flying isn't more dangerous than that!"

"Ten bucks says you're wrong."

* * *

"So how did you manage to get these, anyway?" Cress asked Thorne as the two of them were outfitted with wings. They had already sat through the safety procedures; _don't go too high, don't do anything stupid, don't kill people, don't fly into an airplane,_ and all the other expected rules. Of course she would obey all of them. She didn't particularly want to do anything daring. She would probably have to spend her whole flight restraining Thorne from doing so.

"Hometown hero, remember?" Thorne replied with a wink.

"You were my hero first," Cress said gently, squeezing his hand. She felt a flicker of sensation as her wing was attached to her back and arm, like she could almost feel it.

"I love you too, Cress," Thorne replied. "Are you ready to see our city from above?"

"Oh, yes!" she exclaimed. "It'll be just like a magic carpet, except better!"

"Personally, I'm excited to see how many people I can scare by swooping up on them," he said, grinning devilishly. "I've already given Kai a heads-up that LA is the place to be today."

"Poor Kai," Cress sighed. "Thorne, you know we need to be responsible with these…"

"What are you talking about?" He feigned innocence. "Responsible is my middle name!"

"Right after confident, suave, and daring?" She rolled her eyes. "You can scare Kai, and anyone else you know, but no scaring strangers, okay?"

"Fine," he pouted.

"Your wings are outfitted," a voice said. "You remember how to fly and steer from last time, yes?"

"How could I forget?" Cress smiled, remembering all the times Thorne accidentally smashed into her. She had gone home with several bruises, but the experience more than made up for it. She would never forget the sensation of rising higher and higher until she was above everything, even when _everything_ only entailed a foam pit.

"Okay. Make sure to tell us how all the mechanisms work, and what needs improvement. Walk to the outskirts of the city, and then you can fly."

* * *

Cress flexed her wings, still marveling at the technology that allowed her to _feel_ this device which was not a part of her body. Science had definitely come a long way.

They were standing at the outskirts of the city, on a trampoline, ready to take off. Thorne was flapping his wings rapidly, and Cress was pretty sure he was showing off to her. She looked at him, a giddy smile growing on her face, and he matched her smile.

"On three," Thorne told her. She nodded. "One, two, three!" They leapt up from the trampoline and pumped their wings as quickly as they possibly could, making sure to push the air down. Cress immediately rose about ten feet above ground, but Thorne flapped about helplessly a few feet above the trampoline.

"Come on, Captain! It's nice up here!" Cress said, continuing to fly higher. Stars, this was _wonderful_. The world was rushing past her as she rose above the houses and office buildings.

"I'm trying, Cress!" Thorne replied, flapping even more vigorously to prove his point. On cue, he started to rise as well. "Stars, no one ever told me how much muscle this took. Which ones am I using again?"

"The fake ones in the wings, which you will be able to feel until you get these taken them off." She was now higher than the skyscrapers as well. She looked at Thorne, eyes glinting. A challenge. _Catch me if you can._ "You're also using some back and arm muscles."

"I'm coming for you!" Thorne said, zooming upwards. Cress, however, continued to move away from him, slowly, tauntingly. Only then did she allow herself to look down.

She gasped. The city had become very small, very small indeed. The people were flecks of color dotting the landscape, and the trees mere blotches of green. Looking down and seeing the world spread out beneath her, she knew the world was her oyster.

"Stars," she breathed. "It's beautiful." She stopped flying forward, instead hovering in place. She wanted to share this moment with him.

A soft brush against her wing confirmed that Thorne was indeed beside her. "Not as beautiful as you, darling," he replied.

"Shall we fly?" A mischievous smile.

"Try and beat me."

* * *

"I never want to do another normal date again," Thorne declared. "This is way better."

"Definitely," agreed Cress. They had just spent the last hour flying above Los Angeles, racing each other at breakneck speeds, swooping down on trees and picking themselves up again, flying higher and higher until she looked at him and the two of them burst out into laughter, and feeling the wind rush past their ears. If she could bottle exhilaration, she would have plenty of it right now.

"Ooh!" Thorne said. "I think I see Kai!"

She smirked at him. "I suppose you're going to scare him now?"

"Join me," he said, and then he dived.

A voice in her head screamed _this is a terrible idea on so many levels_ but she couldn't care. She was past caring, she was running on pure adrenaline and happiness. So she tucked her wings in, and followed him.

He was getting nearer and nearer to the man who looked like Kai, but showed no signs of stopping. _What is he going to do?_ He was at the same level as his head now, but behind him. She was six feet above him or so. _Just a little bit more…_

Finally, when she had reached his head level, he glided past him, and whispered, "Cinder is cheating on you…" into his ear. _Oh, no…_

Kai let out an earsplitting scream worthy of the greatest damsels in distress. He started to turn around, desperately looking for the source of the mysterious voice, but to no avail. His jaw dropped.

"Carswell!" she shrieked. "That is not funny!" Thorne was now in front of Kai, trying desperately to set his feet on the ground, but having no success.

"Cress?" Kai turned around to where she was hovering, his face still frozen with fear. "Oh, thank the stars, it is you, Cress! You almost gave me a heart attack there!" His features slackened visibly. "You have wings!"

She smiled, slowing down her wingbeats and allowing herself to land. "Thorne and I were testing out a prototype for our anniversary."

"Thorne?" He frowned. "Wait, was he the one who -"

There was a loud _crash_ from behind them. Thorne, in his attempts to land, had crashed into a bush. He was now lying there covered in leaves. "Gosh darn it!" he exclaimed. "I owe Cinder ten bucks now!" Cress started to giggle.

"Yes, Captain Amazing-Landings over there is the one who tried to scare you." She grinned.

"Not funny!" Kai said indignantly, but he walked over to Thorne and offered him a hand. Reluctantly, he accepted it.

"For that reaction, it was worth it," Thorne grinned, pulling Kai into a (rather leafy) bro-hug.

"I have to admit, though, these wings are awesome. Can you feel them?" Kai asked, poking Thorne's wings.

"Ouch! Yes, I can," he replied. "When did you last cut your nails?"

"Hey, I cut them more often than you," Kai replied, stung.

Cress walked over to where the guys were standing. "You'd be surprised, actually. For all his manly talk, Thorne spends more time grooming himself than I do." Kai smirked. Cress knew he could relate, what with dating Cinder.

"So, anniversary, huh?" Kai remarked, changing the subject. "When are you two going to get married?"

Thorne spluttered indignantly, but Cress said smoothly, "When he proposes to me."

Kai sighed. "Dude, that proposal is _long_ overdue. When is it going to happen?"

"When are you going to propose to Cinder?" he retorted. They both fell silent.

At length, she spoke. "Thorne, we should go," Cress murmured. "The wings are due back in an hour."

"Well, it was nice scaring, erm, seeing you," Thorne said, shaking hands with Kai as he rolled his eyes. "Until next time?"

"Until next time."

* * *

They flew back in relative silence, taking in the beautiful city underneath them. The sun was setting, making the sky they were flying through slightly pinkish, and all the buildings dimmer.

"You know, Cress, we haven't kissed up here yet," Thorne remarked. "It's a sunset, so the setting is very romantic…"

"Subtle," Cress noted, flying under Thorne, and then pulling him in for a kiss.

They were both flapping their wings extra hard just to stay airborne, but she didn't care. One kiss up here, from him felt like a thousand down there. And despite the fact that she was using so much energy in flying, her body felt like it had melted away.

 _Just me, him, and the sky._


	5. The Salon

**Thanks to cresswellvaneck, Rowaelinfeyrhys, and linithamonre77 for reviewing!**

 **cresswellvaneck: Thank you so much for both of your reviews! They completely made my day! I'm so, so glad you enjoyed them so much, and I hope you like this one too!**

 **Rowaelinfeyrhys: Thank you so much! I don't know where that idea came from, but I really enjoyed it, and I'm glad you did too!**

 **linithamonre77: Aaaaaahhhhhh thank you! Yeah, Cresswell is pretty much OTP, and they definitely make my heart beat faster as well. *hearts***

 **This chapter is a collab with the wonderful AvocadoGoddess, again. It is probably my favorite yet, I had so much fun building the world as well as their relationship. Props to rowaelinfeyrhys as well for helping me conceive this idea! I really, really hope you like it! And a million thank yous to everyone who takes the time to review, favorite, follow, like, or reblog!**

 **Edit: Apparently when I uploaded the first time, something was wonky, and the italics didn't work. So here it is, hopefully formatted correctly this time.**

* * *

 **Pairing: Cresswell**

 **Theme: Non-themed**

* * *

"Hello, gorgeous," a man said as he swaggered into the shop.

Cress' first thought was that he was a complete heartthrob. With that chiseled jawline and the dreamy blue eyes, she felt like the floor had been removed from under her feet. Her heart fluttered.

As soon as she thought this, another thought popped into her mind. _What is a guy doing in the salon?_ Men came to the nail salon she worked in once in a blue moon. Usually, when men did come to the salon, they were actors, who needed nice nails for shows.

Her job brought her a lot of interesting characters. Some were lovely people, like her good friend Iko (a different Instagram-worthy, brightly-colored manicure every visit). Some were more than a little eccentric, like the wealthy CEO Levana Blackburn (a blood red, glossy gel manicure every time, with her nails filed to stiletto points). And some were just incredibly ditzy, like Pearl or Luisa, two of the giggling girls who came in every few weeks (always some kind of high-end manicure, usually 3D or with airbrushed patterns). But guys... guys usually tended to avoid her store. She'd only seen a few of them so far, and even they had seemed eager to get out of the store as quickly as possible.

"Sit down," Cress said nervously, hoping her work station was clean. She gestured to the massage chair that was standard for all customers.

"Is that a massage chair? Ooh, baby!" The man's eyes lit up. He sank into the chair, pressing some buttons on the remote. "Aaaaaahhhhhhhh," he said, as the chair began to knead his muscles.

"What can I do for you today?" she asked, hoping he couldn't tell how nervous she was.

"Just - making sure my nails are perfect," he said, looking at his hands with genuine adoration in his eyes. "Gloss them up, file them, make them hand-model worthy."

"You an actor?" she asked, as she picked up her manicuring kit.

"Nah, I'm a communication coach," he replied casually. "I just like to stay neat, and look good."

"Well, I can say you're succeeding in your second goal," she smiled shyly, starting to file his nails.

He raised his eyebrows, giving her a heartstopping smile. She blushed. They fell into silence for a few minutes. She continued to file and clean his nails, while he succumbed to the massage chair completely.

"I didn't catch your name," she mused after a few minutes.

"Call me Thorne, honey," he replied. "I prefer to pretend the first name doesn't exist."

"You have piqued my curiosity," she replied, grinning. "So, Thorne, what is your first name?"

"Captain."

She narrowed her eyes. "No, really."

"I'm not telling you that!" he exclaimed defensively. "Besides, Captain is good enough."

"Okay, Captain," she grinned, "any preference as to nail shape?"

And just like that, she was back in her zone. After all, she was the manicurist and he was a (very, very handsome and charming) customer, and she had a job to do.

* * *

"Just the usual gloss-up?" she asked him.

It had been one month since her first encounter with Thorne, and since then, he had come in about once a week just to 'make sure his hands looked as good as the rest of him'. He always requested to have his nails done by her, to her surprise. She had to admit, though, she was enjoying his company.

"Maybe a little pinkening as well, this time?" He looked at her hopefully.

"Sure thing!" Cress said, grabbing a bottle of light pink nail polish.

She corked it open carefully as Thorne waggled his eyebrows at her. Aces, he was so, so handsome. Every time she looked at him, he made her heart stop. She felt herself blushing harder with every second his gaze stayed on her.

"Here you - STARS! Oh my goodness, I am so sorry!"

Too preoccupied with watching his eyebrows, Cress had fumbled the nail polish bottle and spilled it all over his shirt. Mortification rose in her, and color rushed to her cheeks. _What had she done?_

"I am so, so, so sorry," she rambled, grabbing a napkin and beginning to mop up some of the polish. "I'll do anything you want for you - if you want me to pay for your shirt, I'll do it, if you want a full refund for the manicure, I'll do it, if you want, oh, I don't know, a candlelit dinner with me, I'll even do that! Oh my goodness, I am so, so sorry…" He would hate her now. The appearance-obsessed Thorne would consider this incident a sin, and would never, ever return to give her business again.

Thorne held up a hand. "It's okay. To be honest, I would have been offended if your reaction had been less extreme."

"Really?"

"What damsel can resist me?" he said, wiggling his eyebrows some more. This set off a whole new bout of anxiety.

"I'm so sorry," she repeated lamely.

"Hey, don't be sorry!" Thorne said somewhat emphatically. "I still look good, you know!"

"You do?" The words tumbled out of her mouth before she could think. She, of course, still thought Thorne looked incredibly handsome, but Thorne accepting the blooming pink stain on his otherwise impeccably clean shirt was surprising.

"That's offensive!" Thorne said indignantly. "I look good in everything I wear! It'll take more than a little pink to defeat me!"

"For sure," Cress said, internally sighing with relief. _He didn't hate her._ For some reason, those words made her feel happier than they should have.

"Now, shall we start on those nails?" Thorne wiggled his fingers.

"Don't make me spill the rest," Cress laughed.

* * *

"Cress!"

Cress, who was setting up for her next customer, looked up to see a breathless Thorne entering the shop. He was wearing a bright red baseball cap, a white striped jersey, and a pair of black workout pants. There were black streaks under his eyes. Surprisingly, he still looked heartstopping.

She groaned good-naturedly, waving at him. "You're one of _those_ people?"

"Hey, baseball is cool!" Thorne said indignantly, walking over to her.

"Red Sox?" she queried.

He nodded a little bit too quickly, looking rather frazzled. "Look, Cress, I know you probably have a waiting list fifteen people long -"

"Yup," she muttered. Looking over at the lobby, she saw about three impatient women glaring at her just for stopping to talk to him.

"-but I have to be at a Red Sox game in an hour and I need my nails done red! So is there any way you can accomodate me?" he finished, taking a deep breath. He frowned anxiously.

"A Red Sox fan, huh?" She grinned. "Personally, I've always been more of a basketball person."

She could see the tension pouring off his face. "Cress, I'd love to talk, I really would, but I have to go! I totally understand if you can't do my nails, but -"

Stars. This was such a far cry from the cool, collected Thorne she knew. And this was what he was stressing about?

Without really thinking, she said, "Okay, Thorne, sit down. Let's see those nails."

"Thank you so much," Thorne sighed, collapsing into the massage chair and placing his hand on the arm rest. Cress quickly glanced at the lobby, where several ladies were now standing up, pointing at her, and screaming. Why was she agreeing to do this again?

She waved her hand at them casually. "Thorne, I'm going to do this really fast, and it's going to be really sloppy. Otherwise, things could get messy with _those_ people."

"It's baseball, honey, it doesn't matter." He seemed to be back to his usual self.

"Did you really just say that?" She tilted her head, pulling out the red nail polish. "No undercoat okay?"

"Yeah," he replied. "I'm just grateful you're doing anything."

"Who are you, and what have you done with Captain Thorne?" she said incredulously as she started to paint hasty strokes of red on his fingers. "How come you can't paint your own nails anyway?"

"I _can_ paint my own nails! I'm good at it, too!" he protested. "I just… didn't want to create a mess!"

"I'm not doing much better on that count," she laughed as she continued painting his nails. She counted two red blotches on his fingers that were out of place. So not her best work.

"Plus, I like seeing you."

The world fell from beneath her as she finished coloring the last nail. He came today partially because he liked seeing her?

"Done," she told him. He took her hand and grinned. "Thank you so much," he said, placing a fifty-dollar bill in her hand.

"Holy crap! This is way too much for what I just did!" she exclaimed.

"I owe you more, given the fiasco that's about to ensue," he admitted, gesturing again to the ladies in the lobby, who were now glaring daggers at him. "Oh, don't worry about me, I'll flirt my way out," he said, catching her worried expression.

It was probably all empty talk and flattery anyway, she told herself as he walked out. He was a social person, he liked any sort of company. There was no way on Earth that he could possibly like her.

* * *

The woman sitting in the massage chair (Luisa or Lois or something like that) had the unfortunate habit of talking volubly about herself nonstop. She had made herself comfortable, then said, simpering, "Oh, Crescent, I have so much to tell you."

She had then attempted to tell Cress everything that had occurred in her life since she had last visited. After the first few sentences, Cress had tuned her out, murmuring, "I see," and "Mmhm," every minute or so. She instead concentrated on getting her work (a pink-and-silver shellac manicure, with ballerina nails and airbrushed swirls) finished as quickly as possible.

That is, until she heard a very familiar name.

"-and Thorne is _moving_ , now of all times, with my new-"

"Excuse me?" Cress broke in. "Who's moving?"

Startled by the interruption, Luisa asked, "You know Thorne? Light brown hair, blue eyes, _gorgeous_ smile?"

Cress did indeed know that smile. "He's moving?"

"He is," Luisa affirmed. "For his job. All the way to the other coast."

She kept talking, but at that point, Cress was only half-aware of the mindless chatter. Her mind was on a certain blue-eyed, brown-haired Red Sox fan, far away from the manicure she was then giving.

* * *

"Okay," Cress muttered to herself. She was wearing her most comfortable pajamas and sitting cross-legged on her bed. Opening up an incognito window on her laptop, she typed in the web address for Instagram. "What would Thorne's account be called?"

Probably not his first name, she decided. She recalled the first time he'd made an appearance: 'Call me Thorne, honey. I prefer to pretend the first name doesn't exist.'

She tentatively typed in "thorne" into the search bar. The first account she found was bostonredsuxxthorne. "Definitely not that," she allowed herself a small smile. The second one was captainfabulousthorne. _That_ sounded more likely. She scrolled through the posts. Yup, that was definitely him. Pictures of him at baseball games, of him making stupid faces at the camera (while still managing to look extremely hot), and videos of him at the gym (shirtless, of course). Cress may or may not have watched several of them, swooning over his abs and crooked, shamelessly flirty smile. _No wonder he has so many followers,_ she thought, _probably mostly teenage girls._ And then - Cress felt a sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach - dozens of pictures of him with a pretty, East Asian girl with long brown hair pulled back into a ponytail. She clicked on one, in which Thorne and the girl were standing in front of a poster for the new Avengers movie, and read his caption: " mechielinh, thx for the popcorn and movie 3 ;P". One of the latest comments was, she realized by the girl in the picture herself: "you owe me, _carswell_ ". Cress almost laughed aloud. _No wonder he goes by his last name._ Determined to find out more about the so-called "mechielinh", Cress searched her up in a separate tab. To her surprise (and, though she wouldn't ever have admitted it out loud, relief), the girl - named Cinder - was dating a different guy. _She and Thorne aren't together, thank goodness._

Right. She was stalking Thorne for a reason. She scrolled back to the top of his feed, looking for the post with the information she needed. _There_. She laughed out loud with relief when she saw the post. _If you want to say goodbye, come to 183 West 85th Avenue, Apartment 7B!_ It was almost _too_ easy.

Cress set her jaw determinedly. She was going to find him, and she was going to give him a gift worth remembering.

After all, _he_ was worth remembering.

* * *

"I will carry my keys around with a nail clipper?"

Thorne frowned at the gift he had been given, uncertain what to think of it. It was a nail clipper, with _something_ threaded through it. It could be a keychain, he thought, but who knew?

He also didn't know how to feel about the gift. Clearly, Cress had put a lot of time into it. It was certainly one of the most thoughtful gifts he had ever received, and he knew it would always remind him of her wherever he went.

But on the other hand, he _really_ didn't want to say goodbye to Cress. Over the past few months, she had come to mean so much to him. Over time, he had learned to await the times when his nails were chipping and scratched, because it was an excuse for him to see her. He couldn't help but feel like their relationship had been cut too short.

"No, Thorne, it's a bracelet," she laughed. "I beaded it myself. See, I even used the dorky alphabet beads!"

Thorne frowned, turning the beads until he could see the lettered sides. Huh. She was right. He smiled at the message they spelled out.

"I'll miss you - Cress?" he read out.

She nodded. "Do you like it?" she asked nervously, swallowing.

"Stars above, yes, I love it," he replied breathlessly. "I really, really do." Whoops. That sounded a little bit _too_ emphatic.

"You don't have to keep it if you don't want to," she said, looking down.

"No! Hey, Cress, it's not that!" He put a hand on her shoulder. "I was just… I was just wondering if there was another gift I could have from you."

"You want me to pay for that shirt, don't you?" She laughed, but Thorne could tell she was nervous. "I'll do it."

"No, no, it's not that at all! Aces, I am bad at this," he muttered. And why was he so nervous all of a sudden.

"Captain Carswell Thorne just admitted he was bad at something?" Her mouth twitched upward.

"Hey, how do you know my first name?"

"Instagram. Now, what were you going to ask me?"

"Cress, I wanted to know - can I have your number?" he asked quickly. "Just to, you know, keep in touch…"

" _That's_ what you wanted?" Her eyes narrowed. "Thorne, what sort of a person do you think I am?"

"It's fine," he said, taking his hand off her shoulder. It stung, though. More than being rejected by any other girl ever had.

"Of course I'll take your number!" she exclaimed, pulling him into a hug. "I'd like to keep in touch with you forever and ever! And don't you dare switch manicurists, because then you'll have me to deal with. I will personally fly in to wherever you are and do your nails." She pulled away from him.

"Point taken," he grinned. He felt unnaturally light. Somehow, one smile from Cress felt like a thousand from other girls. "And you were stalking my Instagram? Did you appreciate my gym videos?" he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"As a matter of a fact, I did," she said, blushing. "You really are fit."

"You know it," he said, grinning. The two of them fell into an awkward silence, which was quickly punctuated by Cress' giggles.

Thorne engulfed her in a hug, pulling her as close to himself as he possibly could. "I have to go know, as you probably know from my Instagram," he said.

"Yup," Cress smiled. "Until next time?"

"Until next time." It was a promise.


	6. The Painting

**Thanks to rowaelinfeyrhys for reviewing!**

 **rowaelinfeyrhys: Thank you so, so much! It was such a great prompt, and I had so much fun making it come alive! I really hope you like this one!**

 **This is more Cresswell for the photograph prompt. It is, again, a very loose interpretation, and whilst I had a lot of fun conceiving the idea, it was a little bit harder to execute. As a result, Thorne and Cress may seem a little OOC in this one - I really did try to make them as in character as possible, even given all the restrictions which were put on them because of my setup. I really hope you enjoy it, though! Please review! :)**

* * *

 **Pairing: Cresswell**

 **Theme: Photograph**

* * *

Carswell Thorne, the esteemed painter, was exhausted. Not exhausted physically; he loved his work. Painting was something he was good at, something he loved more than anything. As he used the colors to make the image he was capturing come alive, _he_ came alive as well.

No, Thorne was exhausted of his clients. If one more _perfect_ noble lady came to his doorstep, demanding a painting, he would lose it. Every single one of them acted so condescending, like they were better than him just because of where they were born. Like he was not worth talking to, his only purpose was to serve them. Didn't they understand that he had worked ten times harder to get to where he was?

He was idly painting now, dotting flecks of white on an indigo piece of cloth when a sharp rap came on his door. Sighing, he picked himself up and braced himself for yet another snooty noble lady. He reluctantly turned the doorknob.

At once, he noticed something was different. The woman at the door did not look merely snooty. No, she looked _scary_. It was taking all his effort to merely stay where he was, and not run away from fright.

"You are Thorne, yes?" She practically spat the name out.

"Yes, my lady." He sank into a bow, hoping she wouldn't notice how his knees were trembling.

"Good. I am the Countess Sybil Mira, and I am commissioning you to paint someone."

"What can I do for you?" The words came out evenly, but his insides had turned to jelly. Sybil Mira was a _notoriously_ cruel countess. Every time someone got on her bad side, that person would mysteriously disappear without a trace.

"I need you to paint my - heir, Lady Crescent," she spat. "She is not what I wanted her to be. Unfortunately, I do not have any other heir, and I must still procure a painting of her somehow."

Pity welled up in him for this _Lady Crescent_. It was a small wonder she had survived, if she hadn't been _what Sybil wanted her to be._ Then again, maybe death would be a mercy to her.

"Yes, my lady," he nodded a little bit too vigorously. "When shall I paint her?"

"Be on my grounds, tomorrow, just after noon," she glared at him, as if seeing right through his obedient facade.

"Yes, my lady." He couldn't ignore the sinking feeling in his stomach as he closed the door.

* * *

Cress was reading one of her forbidden science textbooks when a knock came on the door.

She was surprised. Sybil was out for the day to meet up with some duchess - _Levana_. Surely she wasn't back early?

Picking herself up, she stuffed her science textbook away. She carefully picked up her skirts and started to walk down several flights of stairs. Stars, she really hated the dresses she was forced to wear. They were stuffy and restricting, but they also completely objectified her. Didn't anyone care what was beneath the dress?

She was at the bottom of the staircase now, near the giant doors. Who could possibly be on the other side? Tentatively, she reached for the doorknob, turned it, and pulled with all her might.

 _Holy stars almighty._ The man who stood on the other side of the door was the most genuinely handsome person she had ever seen. With those dreamy blue eyes and a shamelessly flirty smile, he probably had suitors coming to him from miles away.

But… he wasn't dressed in the traditional garb of noblemen. And was that _fright_ she saw in his eyes?

"You must be the Lady Crescent?" the man said, sinking into a bow. "I'm Thorne, and I'm here to paint you, as commissioned by Countess Sybil Mira."

She frowned. This man was a _painter?_ "Please, call me Cress," she said. "Did Sybil frighten you?"

His face relaxed, a new twinkle in his eyes. "It will take more than her to scare me," he said, smirking. She knew it was a lie, but she couldn't help but smile. "Did I mention you look absolutely lovely today?"

Her heart fluttered. "Thank you!" she said.

"You will look even lovelier in the painting," he winked. "Are you ready?"

She didn't have any makeup on, but she didn't care. She was still wearing a large, blue, puffy dress, and her piles of hair were pinned back tightly. "As ready as I'll ever be," she replied.

* * *

Cress had been posing for the portrait for an hour, and she was ready to collapse. Her legs were falling asleep, and her cheeks ached from the effort of keeping a (fake) smile plastered on her face. She probably looked absolutely terrible, but it was what Sybil wanted.

Thorne had been talking to her, of course. She _hated_ not being able to reply, especially because he was actually rather charming and funny. Every few minutes, the silence would be punctuated with a remark about how she looked 'almost as good as him', and she would have to bite her lip to keep from laughing.

"Wow, I have really outdone myself," Thorne looked at his painting in satisfaction. "Your house is - Cress, are you all right?"

For Cress, who had not been able to take the discomfort for one second longer, had kicked off her heels furiously and torn the various pins out of her hair. "That's it!" she exclaimed. "This is so uncomfortable! You try sitting here for an hour in the same position in heels two sizes too small and torture devices in your hair!" she added defensively.

He raised his eyebrows. Was that _respect_ she saw in his eyes? "Wow," he said. "And here I was, thinking you nobles were an alien species. But it turns out you _can_ feel things like pain and discomfort."

"I am sorry," she added rather sheepishly. "I can redo the hair, if you want."

"No need," he said. "Do not torture yourself for me. There is no need for you to even pose." He looked straight at her and grinned.

"You don't?" She was in awe. How good of a painter was he, exactly?

"Honey, I've painted the King and Queen of England before. Frankly, the fact that you think I need you to model is rather offensive."

"Wow," Cress breathed. She liked him - she _really_ did. But she knew there was no way he liked her back. "Remind me why you don't have a long line of suitors?"

"Who said I didn't?" He grinned wickedly. "And you, Cress, are at the top of that list." She blushed, but refused to let herself smile.

"Are you going to finish painting me?" she asked.

"Not until you smile." He winked.

She couldn't believe it. "Hey! That's not fair, I just smiled for an hour!" she said indignantly. "Besides, you are still my client, and I demand you to paint." She stomped her foot once. She wasn't really angry, though. Rather, she was enjoying herself. She didn't know why, but something about Thorne made her feel like she was at home. She didn't feel like she had to be anyone or anything around him other than herself.

He grinned. "You are adorable," he said. "Believe it or not, I actually do need to see a genuine smile from you. Otherwise, I'll have to paint you with that awful, gaudy smile, and we wouldn't want that, now, would we?"

He thought her fake smile was awful. Maybe she would give him a real smile, then. Letting herself think about science, freedom, and Thorne's dreamy eyes was enough to make a small smile creep up onto her face. Seeing a look of astonishment on his face - _oh, stars, she loved that look of his -_ she let the smile grow.

"All right, adorable noble, that's enough. You wouldn't want to distract me with your heart stopping smile, would you?"

She froze, letting the implications of his words sink in. He thought… he thought… no, no, no. It was not allowed. They couldn't…

Grabbing his paintbrush, he started to make strokes on the canvas again. She started to slowly back away.

"Come on, Cress, keep me company!" He looked up at her again and beckoned her to come closer with a finger.

"I will … distract you, won't I?" she said tentatively.

"No, I'm good at this," he smoothed his hair.

"Well, okay." Hesitating, she sat back down on the bench where she had been posing. "So, uh, tell me about the other people you paint?"

"Ugh," Thorne groaned. "They think they look perfect beneath their powdered faces and elaborately styled hairs. But none of them could compete with you, my lady, when it comes to beauty."

"You don't mean that," Cress laughed, trying to sound casual. Inside, though, her heart was soaring, venturing into fantasies and daydreams that were… forbidden.

"I do," he winked. Sighing, he turned back to his work. "You're both ten times the beauty and ten times the person that they are. Noble ladies and gentleman are the most snooty, condescending human beings you will ever meet. If I didn't love painting… why, I might have given up years ago."

"At least you are doing something you love," she ventured gently. "That is certainly more than I can say."

"I pity you sometimes," he said, and she knew he was talking about her social class. "You were born with no choice, were you not?"

"There are two things I want more than anything." There were actually three, but she certainly would not tell him the third. "I would like to be a scientist, and I would like to be free."

"A scientist?" He raised his eyebrows, looking impressed. "And what is the third thing?"

"There is no third thing," she said defensively.

"Yes, there is, Cress," he chided. "Come on, just tell me."

"Fine." She bit her lip, hesitating. "I… would like to be free of my social status. I would like to get to know people like you more. I should like to get to know _you_ more." Oh, stars. What had she done?

"I feel the same way," he said mysteriously, and she smiled. He _did_ like her, at least a little bit.

They whiled away the rest of the afternoon like this, exchanging banter and quips, talking about their experiences and dreams, and doing a rather excessive amount of complimenting of each other's looks. It was perfect - too perfect. She _knew_ this was not reality, and she knew he knew it as well. But she was grateful for it all the same.

"I should get going, my lady," Thorne said finally, standing up from his work and shaking out his paint-splattered hands.

"Do not call me that," she replied evenly, suddenly feeling very heavy. It was over - _it was over_. There was nothing left, only cold, hard reality.

"All right, adorable noble," he said, eliciting a small smile from her. He picked up the painting. "I need to finish this. You should be getting this in the mail some time next week. Until next time?"

"Let's not pretend there will be a next time," she said sadly.

"You never know…" He looked at her and winked. "When there's a will, there's a way."

* * *

"It's here!" Cress practically sang, twirling once for effect. After all, Sybil was not home, again.

A few moments ago, a brown, rectangular package had arrived at their doorstep, and she knew _exactly_ what it was. She eagerly scrabbled at the packaging, tearing it apart as quickly as she could.

And - _oh, stars._

It was better than anything she could have dreamed of. Thorne had not painted an idealistic version of her, he had painted _her._ She felt like she was staring into a mirror as she looked at the painting. The eyes, the smile… Cress looked _at ease_ in the picture.

And the background… stars. He had painted plants and trees and wildlife, so realistic, yet so magnificent. A part of her wondered if this was his way of incorporating her love of science into the picture. She smiled.

Silent tears of joy streamed down her face as she hugged the painting to herself… but wait, what was that? Nestled amidst the foliage was a certain light-haired, blue-eyed man wearing his signature smirk. She grinned. That was so _Thorne_ , incorporating himself in the painting.

She picked up the painting, and as she did so, a note fluttered to the ground. She frowned as she picked it up. What _was_ it? Unfolding it, she saw a brief message scrawled out to her.

 _Join me for a cup of something next Saturday at noon. 357 Tudor Avenue. Hope you can make it, adorable noble!_

Heart racing, Cress reread the letter again to make sure she had read it right. It was true - _it was true._ He was really asking her out.

Tears continued to pour down her face. It would certainly not be allowed, but _she didn't care._ He wanted to see her again, enough to send her a secret note. No, she was going to disregard every rule, every norm she had ever learned. Yes, she was riding on impulse, but it was the _correct_ impulse, and she knew what she was doing.

She was going to see the painter who had stolen her heart.


	7. The Band

**Thanks to SpellCleaver, rowaelinfeyrhys, cresswellvaneck, JustARandomNerd, and 1221bookworm for reviewing!**

 **SpellCleaver: Thank you so much for all your lovely reviews! They made my day! Thinder is one of my all-time favorite Bro-TPs as well, and I hope to include a lot more of it in the coming week! I hope you enjoy this one!**

 **rowaelinfeyrhys: Thank you! I'm glad you liked my characterization! That means a lot to me. :)**

 **cresswellvaneck: Thank you so much! I really hope you enjoy this one!**

 **JustARandomNerd: Thank you! That means so much to me! I'm so glad you like it, I hope you like this one!**

 **1221bookworm: Thank you so much for all your reviews! I'm so, so glad you enjoyed all of them, I hope you like this one as well!**

 **This is a collab I did with my dear friend rowaelinfeyrhys for the prompt Band. It was supposed to be a ficlette, but we had a little bit too much fun with it, and so now it's rather... long. It is also the most tooth rotting fluff I have ever written. :) For this reason, we didn't delve that much into the backstories; it's mostly banter and fluff. I really, really hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

 **Pairing: Free Week (Thinder+Iko Bro-TP)**

 **Theme: Band**

* * *

"For the last time Thorne, I. Don't. Want. To. Be. In. A. Band! Especially not with you," Cinder said rather loudly into the phone held up to her ear.

"Ouch," Thorne replied, without much hurt in his voice. "Are you really going to just waste seven years of experience?" He could hear Cinder's sigh. "Besides," he started, ready to whip out his trump card, "you're broke." He heard Cinder grumble. He had that smug smile plastered to his face, she just knew it.

"Fine, but if it doesn't work in six months, I'm out."

"Yes!" he shouted, pumping his fist in the air. "Iko's in, too. She certainly didn't put up as much of a fuss as you. Oh, and Kai can be PR," Thorne said excitedly.

"Wait, your friend _Kai_ is going to be in the band? Kaito Huang, the billionaire?" Cinder asked quickly. "No way, I'm out." There was a pause as Thorne considered.

Then, "You like him don't you? Cinder looooooves Kai," Thorne said. Loud smooching sounds accompanied his outburst. She could practically hear his delighted grin as he continued to tease her in that obnoxious voice. Unsurprisingly, Cinder rolled her eyes, which she was sure Thorne could hear as well.

"I do not." Cinder replied after about a minute of this.

"Do too."

"Do not," she said, but it sounded weak even to her.

"I'm gonna call him and tell him right now," Thorne said excitedly.

"Thorne, I swear if you tell him, you will regret your existence!" Cinder told him.

"Fine, then I'll just call and ask if he wants to be PR," Thorne said. "I'll tell him you say hi."

"No, Thorne don't-" Cinder said quickly, but he had already hung up.

She sighed and let her head flop back into the wall. After a minute, she looked up. Glancing around her bare-bones apartment, she had to admit that she needed the money. The wooden floor was scuffed, and the one piece of furniture in the room was the beat up sofa she was sitting on. It had stuffing coming out of it and looked just about ready to collapse. This _band,_ though not being her first choice in career, definitely had monetary potential. She was quite talented with drums. She had to be, given the years upon years that she had had to play to scrape herself a living while she lived with Adri. Adri had made her do all the household chores and her job as a mechanic, but she had taken all the money that Cinder had made. Anything Cinder had wanted, besides food, hand-me-down clothes, and shelter, had been out of money that Adri hadn't known Cinder had been making.

Besides… she had to admit, she did enjoy playing the drums. It gave her a sort of high feeling nothing could replicate. Coupled with the fact that both of her best friends were doing it… well, she was willing to give it a chance. Oh, and maybe she would get to know Kai a little bit more. It was the least she could do to honor Peony. And… well… he wasn't bad on the eyes, she had to admit.

She shook her head, not believing what she was about to do. Removing her phone, from her pocket, she took a deep breath. She typed two words into her messages with Thorne.

 _I'm in._

* * *

Cinder locked her car, then double checked it. In neighborhoods like these, Cinder had to be extra careful, but it was nothing she wasn't used to. Sighing, she grabbed her drumsticks, and marched up the steps to Thorne's apartment. Thorne could help her lug the drumset up.

When she finally reached Thorne's apartment, she could tell that Iko was already there due to the loud, high pitched, shrieking coming from inside. Despite herself, she smiled. She hadn't seen her old friend in a long time, despite the fact that they talked and texted often. After Thorne had helped her haul her drumset from the car, she was attacked by a hug from Iko with a running start.

"Cinder!" she squealed. "I haven't seen you in so long! How's everything? Are there any new guys I should know about? Or girls, I guess?"

Taking a deep breath, she replied, "No, Iko, I'm as single as ever." She grinned. The two of them started to chat.

After a few minutes of high speed catching up with Iko, she finally took in her surroundings. Although not nearly as worn out as her apartment, Thorne's apartment was nine times as messy to make up for it. There were dirty clothes strewn about, and very old dishes with stale food and dusty glasses on the coffee table. She had to give Thorne _some_ credit, though; it seemed like he had tried to clear a corner for their rehearsal because it was free of furniture, rotting food, and clothes.

The doorbell rang. Cinder frowned. _Who else was coming - ohhhhhh_ … She bit her lip as Thorne opened the door.

Of course, it was Kai. She smiled politely and shook hands with him, trying her best to seem calm and composed. Iko, being Iko, practically launched herself at him when he greeted her. Thorne pulled him into a bro-hug or whatever guys called that weird handshake hug thing. Thankfully, after all of this, Kai asked to use the restroom, and once he was gone, Cinder grabbed Thorne's arm and dragged him off to the side.

"What is he doing here?" Cinder hissed. She wouldn't be able to focus on playing if he was here.

"He's our PR person. Of course he needs to be here for the first rehearsal," Thorne told her, as if it was the most obvious thing ever. Cinder groaned. How could she have been so foolish to think that he wouldn't be at rehearsals?

Kai came back and smiled at them.

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"Nothing," Cinder managed to reply, then looked away quickly.

"Should we figure out the name of the band?" Thorne asked. She silently thanked Thorne for changing the subject.

"I think we should call ourselves the Glitter Poofs," Iko suggested, grinning wickedly.

"What the hell is a poof?" Cinder asked, enunciating every word with disbelief.

"A poof is a poofy..." Thorne said, flapping his arms around in an attempt to explain the end of the sentence. Cinder stared him down, unimpressed.

"Ok, fine, why don't we call ourselves Captain Carswell Thorne And His Dazzling Stars," Thorne added.

. "Because that's self centered, not witty, unimaginative...should I go on?" Kai added with considerably more sass than Thorne was used to hearing from him. Thorne gaped at him and Cinder grinned. Her respect for Kai was rising by the second. Kai looked at her and winked. She felt butterflies come alive in her stomach and she looked away.

"Stars Above," she said firmly, cutting off the brewing argument.

"What's Stars Above?" Iko asked. "Is that some sort of crappy swearing alternative?"

"No, it's the name of our band," Kai said with the kind of finality that made it hard to argue.

"Hmm, it does have a nice ring to it," Thorne said, "But if we do this, you all have to call me Captain Thorne."

"I will," said Iko, "but then you will have to call me Iko The Amazing."

"But I _am_ a Captain! Well, sort of," Thorne protested.

"Well, I am amazing," Iko winked, dipping into a mock-bow.

"Well-" Thorne started to come up with a witty retort, but was cut off by Cinder.

"Are we going to decide on songs, or practice, or anything today, or was that it?" Cinder asked, exasperated.

"Ok, well for music, I thought that we wouldn't have time to compose today, and since we want to have our first concert within a few months, I came up with a few basic ideas. We can change lyrics or whatever." Thorne said, pulling out some papers from somewhere in the room.

Thorne handed them to Iko, and Cinder and Kai gathered around to see. Cinder tried to ignore that Kai was now sitting right behind her and the distance between them had narrowed significantly.

"Wow, these are pretty good," Iko commented.

"You sound surprised," replied Thorne.

"I am," Iko said. Thorne made a vulgar gesture.

"Thorne, do you mind if I make some changes to my part?" Cinder asked.

"Oh no, not at all. I don't know much about percussion and the notation, so I looked up some basic rhythms and put them in. I meant for you to change them," Thorne told her good naturedly.

Cinder grabbed a sheet and Thorne produced a pencil from somewhere. Cinder took it and started scribbling away. Though chatting with Thorne, Kai kept an eye on her, a slight smile on his face. She seemed oblivious to the fact, and continued scribbling, eyebrows scrunched, biting her lip.

She went through all the sheets as Iko suggested some changes to the lyrics. The songs went far deeper than anything she thought Thorne could come up with. Not that she thought Thorne was shallow per se, but she hadn't really thought of him as a poet or lyricist. Cinder found that many of the messages related to their lives and experiences together, especially as kids. She liked it, surprisingly. Kai said as much when he complimented Thorne on the music.

"Should we play it to see if we like it?" Thorne asked, almost shyly.

"Sure!" Iko said, jumping up. Cinder sat down at her drum set and arranged the music on her stand. Thorne plugged in his electric guitar. Kai remained seated on the couch.

"Oh," Cinder said, frowning, "aren't you playing, Kai?"

"No, I don't play an instrument. I'm just going deal with public relations and advertising," he replied with a smile.

Cinder gave a quick nod in reply. _Great. Now he's going to hear me play the drums, and he's going to be underwhelmed. After all, he goes to fancy private concerts. I won't be anything to him._

Ignoring these thoughts, she lost herself in the music.

* * *

Cinder had to admit that she was enjoying herself. They had only had a few rehearsals, but the music had actually sounded good, and they were all happy with it after making some tweaks. Needless to say, Thorne had not shut up about the fact that they agreed to use his music. She hadn't minded, though. Though she hated to admit it, he kind of deserved to brag (though she would never tell him that).

Kai had shown up to some of their rehearsals, so that he could get a better feel for how to advertise them, and she was surprised to find herself opening up with him. Who would have known that a son of a billionaire could be interesting to talk to, sensitive, and funny?

He was here now, typing away on his laptop as they practiced and made a few more tweaks. He had recorded them earlier with some sort of fancy equipment he said he had rented. After a few more minutes, Iko had called a break and Cinder had headed over to the dining table where there was some left over pizza from lunch. They had all been there for a few hours, and they had decided to pick up some pizza.

"You are amazing with those drums," said a voice from behind her as she ate her pizza. Startled, she whirled around, almost dropping the pizza. She was faced with a nervous looking Kai. He ran a hand through his already messy hair and started backing away slowly. She saw her own shock mirrored in his eyes. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," he mumbled.

"Oh.. no... it's fine, I-I just thought that everyone was over there," Cinder stammered, gesturing weakly. Kai smiled awkwardly.

"So how long have you been playing? You sound really good," Kai asked after a stretch of awkward silence.

"I've never really played formally, but I got a lot of street experience," she explained. Kai looked confused.

"Terrible childhood stepmother," she added, as if that explained everything. Understandably, Kai still looked confused. Cinder sighed, not really wanting to explain this particular topic, but he had asked nicely, and he _did_ seem genuinely interested.

"I worked at a garage, as a sort of mechanic, but Adri, my stepmom, took all of my salary. She said it was akin to rent for my room and my food and anything else I _needed_. Anything I _wanted_ , like a phone, for instance, I had to earn the money myself, behind her back." Cinder paused, then continued. "I made a drum set type of thing from stuff I found at the junkyard that we used at the garage. I would be fiddling around with it, just tapping out whatever beats I wanted to, and it turned out people actually liked it. I learned however I could. Old books, experimentation, feedback from people who had played. I used to put on performances on the street and in the open amphitheater at the local park. That's how I earned money without Adri knowing. I saved every damn penny to buy my first drum set," Cinder looked fondly at the drum set resting in Thorne's living room. "It's still the same one I'm playing today. My most prized possession. Second would be my car. I salvaged parts from the junkyard for months, and then I built it. I must have been around fifteen or sixteen."

"Wow," Kai said, his eyebrows raised." "That's very… resourceful. Any chance you could teach me how to build a car or a drum set from scratch?"

"It wasn't from _scratch_ ," Cinder laughed. "When I said I salvaged _parts_ , I assumed that old broken cars from twenty years ago fell under the umbrella of parts."

"Still," Kai said, "I'm impressed. You're both a genius mechanic and a drum-playing prodigy?"

Cinder blushed. "I guess I should feel honored. Kaito Huang, son of Rikan Huang, CEO of Rikan Corporate Industries complimented me? That's every teenage girl's dream."

Kai raised an eyebrow questioningly. "Even yours?"

Cinder blushed harder. She mentally kicked herself. How had she let the conversation go in this direction? Fumbling for words, she said, "Well, you know. I'm not really a teenager anymore."

Kai raised his eyebrow again. Cinder blushed harder than she thought was humanly possible.

"I'm 24, so I think I would have outgrown that sort of thing," Cinder said, slightly pathetically.

Iko, who had walked by to get some pizza, smirked at Cinder and walked away, seeming like she was trying not to laugh. Iko ran over to Thorne, who had come back from the bathroom. She whispered something to him and he looked up at Cinder. He winked at her, and she could see his growing smirk. Cinder sighed quietly and mentally rolled her eyes. Thankfully, Kai seemed oblivious to Iko and Thorne, as they were not in his field of vision.

"So then you used to have a crush on me?" Kai asked teasingly, bringing her back to the more than awkward conversation.

"Hey, I never said that every teenage girl had a crush on you, I said they all wanted to be complimented by you," Cinder said, trying to take on a nonchalant manner. "Besides, I was hardly a regular teenage girl. I didn't even have a phone. My younger stepsister, however, had a huge crush on you."

"Huh," said Kai, looking slightly disappointed. Cinder wondered if it was just her imagination. Kai didn't seem to have anything more to say, so he looked over his shoulder. He spotted Iko and Thorne, who were making a weak attempt at seeming like they were having their own conversation and not eavesdropping. Kai narrowed his eyes, but then he shrugged and asked if they wanted to go back to rehearsal. Cinder let out a silent sigh of relief as she walked back to her spot.

She had to admit though, at least to herself, that talking to Kai was so easy and fun. Well, at least for as long as the conversation stayed away from awkward topics. He was certainly every bit as charming and thoughtful as the media made him out to be.

Just as she was about to start the count off, Kai caught her eye and winked at her. She gasped and her heart gave a flutter. She counted off, but it was shaky and hesitant. _Get it together Cinder! You can't let him distract you!_ She started again, determinedly not looking anywhere near Kai.

* * *

"Details Cinder, I need details!" Iko squealed, scaring away some pigeons nearby. Unsurprisingly, Cinder rolled her eyes. They were sitting on a bench in a park with a coffee each.

"There are no details," Cinder said, throwing a hand up in exasperation. The other was holding her coffee. "He asked about my drum playing, so I told him a bit about my childhood." Iko looked skeptical.

"It didn't seem like that was all when I came over. You were blushing pretty hard." she said, giving Cinder a look.

She hesitated. Iko could sniff any secret out of her, so she may as well tell her. "We may have gotten into the topic of crushes," Cinder mumbled, barely pronouncing the last word loud enough to be heard. Iko must have heard, though, because she let out another ear splitting screech. Cinder winced.

"What did you say? What did he say? Does he know you like him? Does he like you?" Iko asked so rapidly that Cinder could hardly understand her.

"No, no, none of that. I just made a stupid comment about how pretty much all teenage girls have a crush on him and he took it from there," Cinder told her, rubbing the back of her neck uncomfortably. "You know, asking if I had a crush on him and whatever."

"Oh my goodness Cinder! What did you say? Please tell me you didn't screw it up!" Iko said excitedly.

"I told him I didn't have a crush on him."

"WHAT? Why?"

"Because I don't," Cinder said. "I don't have a _crush_ on him. I just enjoy talking to him is all."

"Cinder. You are so stupid sometimes," Iko groaned. Cinder opened her mouth in protest, but Iko cut her off. "Don't think I haven't seen the way you look at him. Your whole face lights up."

"It does NOT!" Cinder said, a little bit too adamantly.

"Keep believing that," Iko said with a wink. "If it makes you feel any better, he definitely likes you back."

"You think he likes me?" Cinder frowned. Who was Iko kidding?

"Oh, yeah. Why do you think he seeks out conversation with you?"

"Because there are only three people he could talk to and I'm quite a bit more reasonable than you or Thorne?" she deadpanned.

"Hey!" Iko exclaimed, offended. Cinder elbowed her.

"On another note, what do you think of that Kinney guy?" Iko asked her. "You know, the one I've been texting you pictures of? Isn't he hot?"

Taking this as her cue to steer the conversation away from Kai, she started, "Oh, well, I guess…"

* * *

"Where's Kai?" Cinder grumbled as she lugged her drum set into the apartment.

They were about two months into rehearsal, and everything was going smoothly. The public reputation, in particular, was skyrocketing beyond anything they could have dreamed of, and all credit went to Kai. She was surprised to find him not here today; he usually came to every rehearsal and worked the whole time.

"Well, hello to you too," Thorne said. "Your boyfriend isn't here today. He's at some event with Rikan Corps. You're stuck with me."

"He's not my boyfriend," Cinder said, groaning.

"Sure," Thorne said with a wink.

Cinder rolled her eyes. "Is Iko here?"

"I'm here!" an overly perky voice sounded. Looking behind Thorne, she saw Iko sitting on the couch, doing her nails.

"You're doing that _now?_ " Sometimes she just didn't understand Iko.

"What?" Iko said defensively. "It was an emergency!"

"Okay, princesses, let's end the girl talk and get to rehearsing," Thorne said.

"Oh, shut up, Thorne, we all know you're much more girly than I am," Cinder replied, elbowing him.

"I am not girly!" Thorne looked indignant.

"Says the person who spends twenty minutes every day styling his hair," she snapped, but there was no real ire in her voice. Thorne's hair routine, which included various conditioners, gel, and perfume, was only rivaled by Iko's.

"Don't diss the hair!" Thorne whined, running his hands through his hair once.

" _Don't diss the hair,_ he says, running his hands through his hair and ruining it," Cinder mocked.

"I'm not ruining it, it looks better messy!" Thorne told her.

"Which is why you spend twenty minutes getting each strand of hair to its exact spot…" Cinder said sarcastically.

"Hey, the ladies love it," Thorne said with a saucy grin.

"And you would know that how?" Cinder shot back.

"Ouch," Thorne said, pretending to be hurt. "I would know because they told me it looks better messy while they were-"

"I'm going to stop you right there before I hear something I don't want to hear," Cinder told him.

"Fine. Iko, what do you think?" Thorne asked.

"What do I think about what?" Iko asked, looking up from her now bright green nails.

"Hair…" said Thorne, gesturing vaguely.

"I think Cinder needs to get a haircut and start keeping it in any style other than a ponytail," Iko said.

"Says the girl whose nails are making my eyes hurt just by looking at them," Cinder shot back.

Iko stuck out her tongue.

Thorne sighed. "Girls," he muttered.

"Hey, you are _not_ one to be talking, mister. I have seen you _break down_ because of a chipped nail. And I've seen you get a manicure," Iko told him.

Thorne gaped. "What? How?"

"I have my ways." Iko said, smiling mysteriously.

Cinder was laughing silently, but thoroughly, in the background.

"Besides, it's nothing to be embarrassed of. I wish Cinder would take care of herself." Iko continued.

"Hey, I do take care of myself. I just don't spend ridiculous amounts of time and money making sure I look immaculate. I work in a garage, for crying out loud!"

Iko just shook her head.

"Are we going to get any rehearsing done today?" Cinder said.

"Probably not," Thorne said cheerily, as she rolled her eyes. "Who's up for some pizza?"

"Ooh! Me!" Iko said, getting up from the couch quickly, spilling the nail polish on Thorne's couch. Thorne raised his eyebrows once, but didn't comment. After all, his couch was messy enough as it was.

Cinder grinned. She loved these maniacs.

* * *

 **Five Months Later**

"How do I look?" Thorne said, straightening his tie and raising his eyebrows at Cinder.

"Overdressed," Cinder grumbled, brushing back her hair. "You and Iko can form a club."

"Cin-der!" Iko moaned. "You're wearing your stupid cargo pants, a-freaking-gain? Why can't you try a little bit?"

"I did," Cinder replied. "I brushed my hair."  
"You'll look ridiculous up there," Iko said. "Come on, Cinder…"

"Says you?" Cinder said incredulously. "You are wearing a rainbow crop top with _glittery pom-poms_ attached to it. And Thorne is wearing a red silk jacket with hipster sunglasses and a top hat. Which, by the way, where did Thorne get the money to get a silk jacket?"

"It's Kai's," Iko explained. "He's been looking for an excuse to get rid of it. And I don't look ridiculous!"

"No wonder," Cinder said. "And Iko, if you don't look ridiculous, then neither do I." She crossed her arms.

"Fine," Iko said. "Come on, though! We need to warm up!"

"All right," Cinder said, lifting herself up off the floor. "If this concert doesn't go well, though, I'm out. I need the money." She shrugged, not believing the words as they came out of her mouth. She was certainly going to miss this band.

"No, you don't," Iko said. "Kai would hand you the money in a heartbeat. He likes you, I'm sure of it."

"First of all, I would never take money from him. Second of all, in what world does he like me?" Cinder said, but she felt a smile grow on her face.

"Don't play dumb with me - oh, good," she said, catching Cinder's smile. "You like him, too, don't you?" Cinder shook her head a little bit too vehemently in response, and Iko grinned. "You do."

"Whatever, let's go warm up now," Cinder said. "We need to finalize the vocals, don't we?"

"Let's go," Iko said.

* * *

They walked in on Thorne tuning his guitar and humming _LA Devotee_ in that slightly pitchy but endearing way of his. When he heard them walk in, he grinned.

"Can you believe that in one hour, we're going to have fangirls?" he asked them.

"I KNOW!" Iko squealed, while Cinder just shook her head.

"There's bound to be some cute girls who come to the concert. Maybe I can pick up someone."

"Please," Cinder scoffed. "You think they'd find you handsome in _that_?!" She gestured to his absurd outfit.

"Hey! I take offense to that. This outfit took a lot of time to plan out! Anyway, they'd find me handsome no matter what I wear," he winked.

"Let's rehearse," Cinder said, rolling her eyes. Conversation closed. She sat down behind her drum set and counted off. After a few bars of the beat, Thorne joined in with his guitar. Then Iko and Thorne came in with the vocals. Cinder sunk into the stool and focused on the percussion. Her sticks were flying from here to there so fast that you couldn't see them. There was only her, her drums, and the rest of the band, whom she was guiding. She smiled. This was one of her favorite parts of the band. The utter joy of being able to play, to compose her own pieces. They flew through the piece, Thorne and Iko ending with their faces turned up, a final chord from Thorne on the electric guitar, and then Cinder's solo at the end. When she pounded out the last few notes, then let the base fade out. Suddenly, she heard clapping. Startling out of her trance, she turned towards the source of the sound. Kai was leaning against the doorway, watching them, her in particular. He seemed impressed, but also slightly distracted. He did have a lot to do, she supposed, what with this being their first concert and him being the PR person.

"You guys sound great," he said to them, looking her straight in the eyes. _Stop it Cinder_ , she chided herself for imagining that. _Get over this ridiculous crush_ , she told herself sternly.

"Just to let you know, you're on in ten minutes," Kai said, breaking her out of her thoughts.

"Ooh! I'm going to go take a peep and see how our fangirls look!" Thorne said, meriting an eyeroll from Cinder.

"Actually, you should all get up there and set up," Kai said.

* * *

The space was much smaller than they had imagined it to be. Somehow, in Cinder's fantasies, they were performing in auditoriums the size of Carnegie Hall, when in real life, they were at a nightclub. Still, it was fairly large, and she started to set up her drum set in the back corner.

"Come forward, Cinder, people need to see your face!" Kai said.

"No, they don't," Cinder said.

"Oh, come _on_ , who wouldn't want to see your face? It's beautiful," Kai said, smiling at her and making her heart stop.

He had just called her _beautiful_.

Reluctantly, she brought her drum set forward six inches, and dragged her chair along with it. Oh, well. No one would look at her anyway, what with Thorne and Iko competing for Most Ridiculously Dressed Band Member.

Thorne, who had been peeking through the gap in the curtain, turned around and looked at Cinder. "Whoo, they are _hot_ ," he said.

Cinder merely shook her head. "Are Scarlet and Wolf here?" she asked him.

"Yeah, they're here. So are Winter and Jacin. And - wait for it - there's this cute blonde girl who saw me peeking through the curtain. Needless to say, we made eye contact, and I think she's in love with me." He looked very pleased with himself.

"Keep fooling yourself," Cinder said. She frowned. "I'm surprised Winter could make it. Her step-mom's…"

"Crazy," Thorne finished. "I certainly hope I never find myself on Levana's bad side."

"Well, I already am, so I'm pretty sure you are too, by association…"

"You ARE?!" Thorne exclaimed. "What did you do?"

"Shush, not so loud," Kai said, walking on stage to survey the set-up. "Nice," he remarked. "You guys are on in one minute."

"Tell you later," Cinder muttered. Thorne flashed her a thumbs up.

* * *

As the curtain rose, Cress couldn't help but feel the pressure in her throat building up. She was here. She was _here_ , watching Stars Above make their debut. And aces, she was excited. Captain Thorne had _winked_ at her.

In the back of her mind, a slight itch reminded her that she would be severely punished if Sybil found out that she had sneaked out, but she silenced the creeping worry as the band was announced. She cheered as loud as she could and tried to stand on her tiptoes to see better.

Her breath caught. Captain Thorne was looking at her. And oh, those eyes… However, a moment later the curtain rose. His gaze turned back to his band, so she couldn't be sure that it had really happened at all.

Cress definitely enjoyed what was certainly the most exciting night of her life. It was more exhilarating than anything she had ever experienced. She sung along, and danced a little bit when nobody was watching. Sometimes even when people were watching. They only laughed and danced along with her while the upbeat music blared through the overcrowded room.

After the concert had finished, people had scattered. Some went to the bar, some went back to their booths. She stood by the makeshift stage. She wasn't going anywhere. A small voice in the back of her head whispered that she should go back before Sybil catches her, but it was drowned out by the music and the dancing and the pure exhilaration she felt. After all, she was an adult and she deserved one night out. She pushed to the middle of the dance floor and threw her arms up.

* * *

"Well, I'd say that was pretty successful. Good job team," Thorne said happily, squishing Cinder and Iko into a group hug. Cinder was in a surprisingly good mood herself. She simply laughed, put down snare drum she was holding, and hugged them both.

"Kai, my man," Thorne called out. "Come join the group hug. We wouldn't have had nearly as many people here if it weren't for you!" Kai laughed and joined the hug. Iko managed to maneuver herself so that Cinder was next to Kai. When Thorne and Iko started jumping up and down, Cinder and Kai hastily removed themselves from the hug. Cinder went back to her drum, picked it up and started walking.

"Cinder, where are you going?" asked Iko.

"Oh, I'm just putting all this in my car so that nothing happens to it," Cinder replied.

"But you're going to come back, right?"

"Sure. It'll take me a couple rounds to put everything away. I'll come and say goodbye before leaving, though."

"Ok. Let us know if you need help," Iko said, and went back to recounting every second of the evening with Thorne.

Cinder picked up her set again and started walking. Kai jogged to catch up with her.

"Hey, need a hand?" Kai asked.

"Actually, that would be great. Could you pick up the symbols over there?" Cinder asked.

Kai picked them up easily and followed her. It took them about three rounds to move all the various parts of Cinder's drum set carefully to the car. Chatting with Kai, however, it felt like no time at all.

"Ok, that's the last of it," Cinder said, locking her car and pocketing the keys. "I should just go inside and say bye to Iko and Thorne and then I'll get going," she told Kai.

"You're going to leave?" Kai asked, seeming disappointed.

"Yes. There's no reason for me to stay," Cinder replied, wondering why he was asking.

"Well, we're allowed to stay for the rest of the night…" Kai told her.

"Oh. Well, I don't really like nightclubs. They… just haven't ever been what I've wanted them to." Cinder said.

"Would you..do you...would you stay? And hang out with me?" Kai asked nervously. Seeing Kai at a loss for words was something new. Adorable, though.

"As - as friends?" Cinder stammered. Was Kai _asking her out?_

"Yeah," Kai said, "unless… unless _you_ want to go…as more than friends?" He was smiling at her, and he looked so perfect.

"I...I would love to go as more than friends," Cinder told him shyly. Laughing, Kai grinned at her and held out his hand. She took it and blushed. Was she really going out with _Kaito Huang_? She wasn't sure how this had happened, only that it felt more _right_ than anything ever had. So she didn't resist as he pulled her back into the night club.

* * *

Cinder and Kai rejoined Thorne and Iko who had finished freaking out about their performance and were now just talking rapidly. Iko paused and noted their joined hands. She smirked at Cinder.

"I expect all the details tomorrow," Iko whispered with a wink. Out loud she said "So I assume you guys are staying?" Kai blushed and nodded.

"You guys?" he asked.

"I'm going to change and then go out and mingle. Maybe find that girl from before." Thorne told him.

"Of course you are," said Cinder, rolling her eyes. "You know she probably doesn't remember you?"

Thorne put a hand to his chest in fake offense. "Of course she remembers me, I'm the lead guitarist!"  
"You are the only guitarist," Cinder told him, since friends existed to deflate each other's egos.

"I'm also one third of the performers that she was here to see, so I think she will remember me."

"Whatever you say," Cinder said, not sounding convinced. "Come on Kai, we should go warn the poor girl before Thorne gets out there."

Thorne gave her a vulgar gesture that she just laughed and returned.

"And I think I saw a dance floor that's calling my name," said Iko. Cinder laughed.

"Ok, have fun," she told her friend and gave her a hug.

"You too! But seriously, I expect a full report tomorrow," Iko whispered to Cinder before pulling away with a grin.

* * *

Cress had been dancing nonstop for half an hour when she saw the vocalist from Stars Above enter, still in her costume. _Iko_. She felt her spirits rise. If Iko was here, then maybe Captain Thorne would be too! She watched Iko head to the bar and strike up a conversation with some boys sitting there.

She then saw the percussionist, Cinder, enter through the door with another man. He looked like the famous Kaito Huang, but she couldn't be sure. She watched them sit down at a booth a short distance away from the dance floor. She watched the door for a few more minutes, but Captain Thorne didn't come out. _Oh, well_. It wasn't that big a deal. Crushing her disappointment, she turned around and started dancing again.

Thorne entered the crowded room through the same door that Cinder, Kai, and Iko had left a few minutes ago. He had changed out of the silk jacket, exchanging it with a simple cotton shirt and jeans. He combed his hair, winked at his reflection in the mirror, and strolled out of the restroom. Aces, he looked good. He paused just inside and noticed that Iko had gone to the bar and was now flirting with some boys. Cinder and Kai had unsurprisingly gone to a table and seemed too caught up in their conversation to bother with anything else.

He scanned the room. He didn't see Scarlet, Wolf, Jacin, or Winter. Oh well. His eyes caught on a small figure in the middle of the dance floor. It was the girl from earlier, dancing as if she didn't have another care in the world. On impulse, he strolled over to her. Maybe he could get some flirting in tonight as well.

Her eyes were closed and she was facing the other direction. He didn't want to startle her, so he danced near her, but didn't touch her. He saw some other people eyeing her appreciatively. He glared at them until they looked away. She was _his_ tonight. He didn't know why he felt drawn to her, but he was riding on impulse.

Suddenly, she spun around and opened her eyes, seeming startled to see him.

Cress was caught up in the music, oblivious to everything and everyone around her. It was easily the best night she'd had in forever! She spun around and opened her eyes, to be faced with none other than her Captain Thorne. She startled. How long had he been there? He was watching her, and as soon as he noticed that she was looking at him, he flashed her a charming smile.

"Hello," he said as smoothly as he could over the music, straightening the lapels of his jacket.

"Hi," she replied, breathlessly. _From the dancing,_ she told herself. She was breathless because of the dancing.

"Do you want to grab a drink?" He was shouting now, as the music had switched to something heavy metal.

"Yes!" she half-squealed, quickly covering her mouth afterwards. "Of course," she added afterwards, more calmly. How was this happening to _her_ , of all people?

She followed him to the bar, where it was still loud, but quiet enough to talk. Once drinks had been placed in front of both of them, he held his glass up to her. "Cheers," he said.

"Captain Thorne, as you probably know," he told her as they clinked glasses. As if she didn't know. He tipped his head backwards, then poured half of the contents of the glass into his mouth.

She nodded. "I'm a big fan," she said shyly. "My name is Cress," she added, taking a small sip from her glass.

"Well Cress, it's a pleasure to meet you," he said with a roguish grin. Heat rose to her cheeks."I must say, you really can dance. Almost as well as me." He winked, taking another sip of his drink.

She blushed. "Your performance tonight was amazing!"

"You know it," he grinned.

"Have you… always been interested in music?" She bit her lip. Her lame attempt at small talk, ladies and gentlemen.

"Music is my _life_ , honey," he said, finishing the last dregs of his drink. He raised his eyebrows at her. "Wanna dance?"

Her heart fluttered. "Yes," she breathed, still in disbelief. _Captain Thorne_ was asking her to dance. How was this happening to her? He was probably drunk, she decided.

She followed him out to the dance floor. At once, he grabbed her hands and started to jump up and down. "Yeah!" he screamed.

Definitely drunk. She was pretty sure _she_ wasn't drunk, but she was running on adrenaline. She wanted more of _him._ Rather than back away from him slowly, she threw herself into his hands, grinning at him.

"Whoo!" she squealed, pumping her fist.

"Oh, honey," Thorne shook his head, "I've seen many beautiful things, but none as lovely as your face."

And then they were kissing.

She _knew_ he was extremely drunk, and she knew he would not remember it in the morning. But that didn't stop her from feeling happier than she had in a long time as she pressed his mouth to hers.

 _It's only one night,_ she told herself as they pulled apart. _There's no way Sybil would allow it, and besides, there is no way he would like me._

"I love you," she said, looking at Thorne dreamily.

"I know," he replied, winking.

* * *

Iko tackled Cinder as soon as she walked into Thorne's apartment, without the drumset this time.

"We were so great last night!" Iko squealed, somehow managing to dive onto Cinder and escort her into Thorne's bedroom, where he was lying on his bed (presumably hung over).

"I know!" Thorne said, surprisingly loudly. "Cress loved us!" he added. He clutched his head. "Aah, pain."

"You're such a wimp." Iko teased. "Was Cress the blond girl you were looking for?" She gave Cinder a knowing smile.

"Yup, she's amazing. I'd definitely be interested in a second date. "

"Wow," Cinder said, raising her eyebrows. "I've never known you to stay with a girl for more than one date. But, I mean, you _did_ kiss her, so… " She grinned at Iko.

"I _what_?" Thorne spluttered, gaping.

"Oh, so then you were completely drunk. I wasn't sure." Iko said matter of factly as Thorne turned completely red.

"She _was_ cute!" he said defensively, but this only encouraged Iko more.

"You looooove her, don't you?" she said.

"No!" Thorne said weakly. "No… I don't! I barely even know her!"

Iko just shook her head. "That's never stopped you before," she said. She turned her attention to Cinder. "You looked like you were enjoying yourself with Mister-Perfect-Gentleman-Kai…" She winked.

"Kai _was_ a perfect gentleman," Cinder admitted with a faint blush. "And I had a good time," "By the way, I just wanted to let you guys know that I'm staying with the band. Turns out Thorne's music is actually likable, because between the band and the garage, I can support myself," she told them shyly.

"That's so great, Cinder," Iko squealed, as Thorne gave her a knowing smirk.

"Just think of how much fun we're going to have!"

Cinder started laughing. "With the three of us, there is no chance that it can go any other way."


	8. The Sandwich

**Thanks to Penn-The-Writer-Is-Fucking-Magic, SpellCleaver, and JustARandomNerd for reviewing!**

 **Penn-The-Writer-Is-Fucking-Magic: Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it, tooth rotting though it was. I hope you like this one!**

 **SpellCleaver: THANK YOU! I cannot express how happy I was when I saw your review! I am so, so glad you liked it so much! I had so much fun writing the banter, and I'm glad you liked it! really hope you enjoy this one!**

 **JustARandomNerd: Thank you so much! I'm so glad you liked Kaider and Thinder, and that piece of dialogue was one of my favorites to write as well! I hope you like this one!**

 **This is another collab with the lovely (as always) AvocadoGoddess. It is also pure, tooth-rotting fluff. It was supposed to be a short drabble, but surprisingly, it exceeded 1000 words. It is still fairly short, though. As you can tell from this, I really like sandwiches and Pop Tarts. I really hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

 **Pairing: CressWolf (BrOTP)**

 **Theme: Non-themed**

* * *

"But I'm a perfectly good pilot, and it's _my_ ship!" Thorne protested.

"Perfectly good?" Scarlet rolled her eyes. "And it's not your ship _yet_. You stole it."

Cress grinned sheepishly at Wolf, and he grinned back. They were all on the Rampion, headed from Farafrah to France to deliver the letumosis antidote. Needless to say, over the past few weeks, numerous such arguments had broken out between Thorne and Scarlet, and all Cress and Wolf could do was laugh at them.

Subtly, they shifted away from the center of the galley, where the argument was intensifying.

"I hope they don't break anything," Cress winced as Scarlet slapped her hand on a counter for emphasis.

Wolf laughed. "The cabinet handle will never be the same."

"Good thing neither of them is holding any sharp or heavy objects." Cress pointed out. Neither Thorne nor Scarlet would ever throw anything at each other, but their wild gestures put many a galley appliance in mortal danger.

"Thank goodness," Wolf muttered. He glanced up at Cress. "Hey, Cress? Are you hungry? Because I'm practically starving right now."

"You know," Cress laughed, "I don't think I ever made you that sandwich I promised you, aboard the Rampion all those weeks ago."

"It's only been weeks?" Wolf looked surprised. "It feels like it's been an eternity."

"Yeah," Cress sighed. "A lot has happened since then."

Wolf sighed as well, and the two of them fell into a reflective silence.

"You know what hasn't changed?" Cress said brightly. "I still want to make you that sandwich."

Wolf's eyes lit up. "I will take you up on that offer," he said, getting up from his seat.

* * *

"Okay, so first things first, what do you want in your sandwich?"

Cress was determined to make this sandwich right. She had already pulled out her sandwich maker (the Rampion did not have stoves) and plugged it in. She was now taking on the task of sorting through the refrigerator to see what would be good sandwich material. Unfortunately, with Thorne on board, this proved to be rather difficult.

"Tomatoes," Wolf replied with certainty. "And… maybe lettuce. And cheese. I would love some cheese. Preferably mozzarella."

"Okay," Cress said, continuing to dig through the refrigerator. "Ugh, _Thorne!_ Original Pop Tarts, Cinnamon Pop Tarts, Trader Joe's Toaster Pastries… remind me why we need all of these again?"

"They are delicious," Wolf admitted rather sheepishly.

"It's not that," Cress groaned, throwing up her arms in surrender. "How is anyone supposed to find _anything_ here?" Pulling out the boxes of Pop-Tarts, she looked at what was underneath it. " _Beer?_ What occasion does Thorne envision we would need beer, of all things?"

Grunting, she heaved the bottle of beer and slammed it down on the counter, rather forcefully. Her eyes caught on the item the beer had been hiding. "Tomatoes!" she said, eyes lighting up. She pulled one out and handed it to Wolf. "Taste?"

He took it from her hand and took a large bite. "Not as good as Scarlet's, but still delicious!"

"Yay!" Cress breathed a sigh of relief. "Now, I just have to find the mozzarella, lettuce, and bread."

"I'll help."

After a few more minutes of intense searching, the items in question were found. Cress promptly grabbed two slices of bread and inserted a large hunk of cheese between them.

"Here we go," she said, turning on the sandwich maker. It promptly flickered to life and started to make various beeping sounds.

"Is it supposed to do that?" Wolf asked.

"I have no idea," Cress said. "I've never used it before."

They stared apprehensively at it for a few seconds.

"Oh, well," Cress shrugged. "If it turns out to be a problem, we'll call Cinder."

A loud beep pierced the air. Both of them jumped.

"Let's just hope it's heating up," Wolf gave Cress a nervous smile.

"Hopefully it is," Cress muttered. "I'm pretty sure Thorne lost the instructions though, so I guess we'll have to wait and see..."

Wolf nodded. "Can you put tomatoes in the sandwich?" he asked, a little bit too eagerly.

"You can do the honors." She smiled, gesturing to the already rather large and lumpy sandwich. Wolf gave her a giddy smile and proceeded to pile the tomatoes into the sandwich.

"Not too many, we need to save room for the lettuce!" Cress chided.

Wolf nodded sheepishly. "Right," he said, taking a huge handful of lettuce and pouring it onto the sandwich.

Cress gave a skeptical look at the mass of bread, cheese and vegetables in front of her. It was already four inches high. Would it even fit in the sandwich maker?

"Whoops," Wolf shrugged. "I might have gone a bit overboard there."

"Well, I guess we'll just have to take something out," Cress tentatively poked the sandwich. "What do you like the least? Maybe take out some lettuce?"

"I guess…" Looking rather crestfallen, Wolf started to carefully scoop out some of the lettuce. The sandwich immediately deflated to a manageable height of three inches.

"That's better, now," Cress said, picking up the sandwich and squishing it shut. Tentatively opening the sandwich maker, she placed the sandwich inside it and closed it. At once, the machine started to make sizzling noises.

"Here we go," Wolf said, nervously shifting his weight.

"Well, at least we know it heated up," Cress shrugged.

A silence descended as they expectantly watched the sandwich maker together. Cress giggled, realizing how strange they probably looked.

"What are you two doing?" Scarlet's voice rang out behind them.

Thorne popped into the room, followed by Scarlet. "Hey! What happened to my Pop Tarts?! And my beer!"

"Casualties of the great tomato sandwich," Cress shook her head with mock sadness. "Which, by the way, why do you even have beer?"

"You never know," Thorne winked, while the rest of them rolled their eyes.

Their conversation was cut short by a violent beeping sound accompanied with a red flashing light. Cress turned around. It was the sandwich maker. Why was she not surprised?

"I guess that's our cue," Wolf said, reaching for it. He pried the machine open, to find...

A golden-brown sandwich, with melted cheese oozing out of the sides and red tomato juice dripping from the edges.

"Stars," Wolf said, looking at it with almost as much affection as he looked at Scarlet with. "It looks amazing. Thank you, Cress."

"Splitsies?" Cress asked, holding up a butter knife and grinning at her partner in crime.

"You can do the honors," Wolf gestured to the cheesy perfection in front of them.

Cress took the knife and cut the sandwich through the middle. She handed one half to Wolf, even though the halves were still connected by the oozing cheese.

"Spades," Thorne inhaled the scent. "Now I'm hungry, too."

"Don't even think about it," Cress warned him, brandishing the butter knife. "This is the glorious product of our har labor."

Wolf held his half up to Cress's. "Cheers," he said.

Cress smiled, accepting the toast. "Here's to many more sandwiches to come."


	9. The Ball

**Thanks to APeurDeFISH1412, JustARandomNerd, Penn-The-Writer-Is-Fucking-Magic, SpellCleaver, and 1221bookworm for reviewing!**

 **APeurDeFISH1412: Thank you so much! I'm glad you liked it! I'm not that used to writing CressWolf, so I'm glad it worked! A sandwich maker is a thing lol… though I may have exaggerated the sound effects just a little bit. ;)**

 **JustARandomNerd: Thanks! Hope you like this one!**

 **Penn-The-Writer-Is-Fucking-Magic: Thank you! I love that type of sandwich as well. :) I'm glad we were able to make you hungry. I hope you like this one!**

 **SpellCleaver: Thank you so much! Your reviews always make me smile. :) Hope you like this one!**

 **1221bookworm: Thank you, thank you, thank you for both of your reviews! I'm so, so glad you liked them so much, it means so much to me! I hope you like this one!**

 **This is (yet another) collab with the amazing (as always) AvocadoGoddess and rowaelinfeyrhys. All idea props go to AvocadoGoddess, and since we all wanted to write some fluffy Thinder, AvocadoGoddess let us collab! It was so much fun to work on this idea with these two amazing people. This story is extremely fluffy, and we all had so much fun writing descriptions, both for the ballroom and for all the foods! As you can tell, I really love food. :) Hope you like it, and please review!**

* * *

 **Pairing: Thinder and Cressiko (BroTP)**

 **Theme: Lunar Ball**

* * *

Cress stopped at the top of the stairs leading down into the great hall where the second annual Lunar Ball was being held. Her breath caught. Besides Cinder's coronation, this was one of the first big events like this that she had been to. It was a huge room full of fully lit crystal chandeliers, elegant tapestries, and large urns. Some were filled with moon rocks, some with reflective pools of water, still others with flowers. A large part of the space was completely empty, save a few people twirling around it in dresses and suits and other clothes that she didn't have names for. _Ballroom, then._ Stars above, there were so many colors. Deep sapphire, emerald green, fiery red, sunset pink. They were beautiful even without glamour.

Further along, towards the corner of the room were huge tables laden with every possible food imaginable. She had been getting to try so much new food as she and Thorne traveled around the world, but she had never seen so many different types of food all in the same place. Around the perimeter of the room were tables covered in thick, luxurious cloth, fine dishes, and glowing candles.

Cress carefully walked down the staircase into the bustle of people below. Almost immediately, she was ambushed from behind by a mass of pink tulle.

"Cress!" it squealed. "You look _adorable_! Is that the dress I gave you last week?!"

Momentarily overwhelmed, Cress attempted to turn and take a look at her attacker. "Iko?"

"Who else?" Iko laughed, spinning around to display the full length of her classy dress. "Do you like?"

"It's beautiful, Iko," Cress brushed a finger down the silky material. Iko's dress ended at her mid-calf, flaring out at her waist. The top was sleek and form-fitting with tight sleeves that ended at here wrists. Layers upon layers of pink tulle were gathered at an empire waist, almost giving the impression that a large pink cake was encasing Iko.

"But I was right!" Iko practically shrieked. "That blue complements your eyes so well."

Cress laughed. "Thanks, Iko. I should never doubt your fashion sense." She scanned the ballroom quickly, taking in her surroundings.

She frowned. "Where's Cinder?" she asked. After all, Cinder was supposed to be the guest of honor.

"Oh, probably hiding somewhere," Iko said. "You know her, this isn't really her thing. I offered to keep her company, but she told me to enjoy myself. So," she shrugged, "here I am."

"Well, you certainly look amazing," Cress laughed. "How long did that hair do take?" Iko's hair was in the same twisty bun she had put it in for the gala at Los Angeles, but stars, it looked even better today.

"Only a little bit longer than last time," she said. "But you should see my nails! They took forever!" Iko held up her hand. Her nails were a deep pink, with airbrushed silver patterns.

"Those really are amazing," Cress agreed.

"Any excuse to dress up," Iko winked.

"I completely agree," Cress told Iko as she linked her arm through Cress'. Indeed, during her imprisonment in her satellite, she had had a total of three day dresses. Dressing up for a fancy event was still a novelty for her.

"Come on, let's go look at the Lunars. Some of them have the most gorgeous clothes," Iko said to Cress, pulling her away from the base of the sweeping staircase and into the twirling masses beyond.

Indeed, Cress felt like she was being swept into a fairy tale, albeit a rather stuffy and proper one. With Iko there, though, gushing about everyone's dresses and hairdos and makeup, it felt like a dream come true.

* * *

Cinder grimaced, taking another one of the disgusting bread slices, which were spotted with flecks of green, and spreading some mysterious sauce over it. Placing it in her mouth tentatively, she made a face as the taste filled her mouth.

She didn't know why she was continuing to eat it, but she had nothing better to do. This ball was honestly one of the most trying events she had to go to. Last year, Kai had been there, but this year he was at some _conference_. So she was left alone here, with all the fake Lunar aristocracy, strutting around and preening like peacocks. Oh, and the Rampion crew was there as well, but they certainly looked like they were having the time of their life. Cress and Iko were chatting away, presumably comparing dresses. Jacin and Winter were dancing, Scarlet and Wolf were eating food a few tables away, and Thorne… what was Thorne doing? She didn't know, but she wasn't sure she wanted to either.

She sighed. There was no way on Luna that she belonged at this ball. Even though she was the ex-queen of Luna, she didn't _feel_ Lunar at all.

She didn't have a _duty_ to be here at the moment as well; it was just wining and dining at the moment. Would anyone even miss her if she just slipped out? She knew she would be able to… the Lunar guards let her do whatever she wanted.

 _Could she just slip out for a moment?_

She wasn't sure if it was a good idea, but _stars,_ she needed some fresh air. She slowly started backing away from the appetizer table, and towards the back door.

She was almost at the door - _freedom_ \- when she felt a hand clamp down on her shoulder and stop her in her tracks.

"Where do you think you're going, Cinder?" said Thorne.

* * *

"Somewhere with no irritating people," Cinder slipped out from under his hand. "Sorry Thorne. That automatically discounts you."

"But you're the guest of honor! It would be a pretty terrible ball if the guest of honor went missing."

"The so-called guest of honor is not actually doing anything important," Cinder pointed out. "It's not like they're even going to notice."

"Come on, Cinder," Thorne protested. "Let's do something fun!"

"I think our definitions of _fun_ are very different," she replied, turning away from him and starting to walk away.

"Not so fast," Thorne said, putting a hand on her shoulder again. "I bet I can think of something we can both find fun."

"Well, I bet you're wrong," Cinder replied irritatedly. Why wouldn't he just leave her alone?

"Say, are there any drinks at this party at all?" Thorne asked suddenly.

"Yes. But no drinking games. That is not a respectable activity for the ex-queen to be partaking in," Cinder shook her head sternly.

"Respectable? Who cares about respectable?" Thorne asked incredulously.

Cinder scowled. "People with valid moral compasses. Besides, that doesn't fall under my definition of fun. Under any of my definitions of fun. Even the loosest ones."

"Ouch, Cinder," he clutched his chest dramatically, "that hurts."

Cinder smirked in response. "I don't hear you trying to deny it."

Thorne shrugged. "How about..." he trailed off. "Oh, how about we ship people?"

"Ship people? That's the best you could come up with? Shipping Lunar aristocracy? Has someone replaced you with Iko?" Cinder asked him, exasperated.

"Hey, trust me, it'll be fun. And no, but I hang around with her a lot, and Cress calls her a lot and I hear a lot of their conversations, so some of her… personality… may have rubbed off on me," Thorne said, trailing off.

"No, we are not doing this." Cinder told him. "For about twelve different reasons that I'm not going to spell out right now."

"But-"

"No. Most definitely not." Cinder said with that terrifying look that she used very rarely and only ever on Thorne.

Thorne threw his hands in the air with exasperation. "Well then, what do you suggest?"

"I suggest that I go back to my room and start the book that has been sitting on my nightstand for two weeks now. I suggest that you go find Cress and Iko and freak out about dresses and hair or something." Cinder said, spinning on her heel.

Thorne grabbed her arm. "Hey!" he exclaimed indignantly. "I don't _freak out_ over dresses and hair? And plus, you still can't leave because you are the guest of honor." He gave her a look.

"Ugh, fine. But since you're making me stay, you also get the honor of keeping me company and warding away anyone who seems interested in beginning a conversation."

"Well, I clearly remember that someone told me to go away, so maybe not," Thorne said smugly.

"Thorne, I swear…" Cinder said threateningly.

"From begging to threatening in 2.3 seconds. Good to know," Thorne told her with a wink.

Cinder scowled at him. "So?"

"Fine, fine, what do you want to do?" Thorne sighed.

"And we're back to square one."

"Well, I do seem to remember that I was the only one providing ideas, so you aren't really one to be complaining right now..." Thorne said.

"I'm not complaining." Cinder informed him.

Thorne raised his eyebrow, skeptical.

"Fine. You know what? Let's go look at the food," Cinder suggested, striding away.

"What, just look at it? What's the point of that? Shouldn't we at least try it?" Thorne asked slightly mockingly as he strode to catch up to her. She walked fast, especially considering that she was wearing a dress.

Cinder rolled her eyes, but a smile tugged at her lips.

"So tell me, where have you and Cress gone so far to distribute the antidote?" Cinder asked him.

"Small talk, really?" Thorne asked, giving her a mock disapproving look.

"It's not small talk, I'm genuinely interested in knowing," Cinder shot back.

"In that case, let's see. We've been to New Beijing, obviously. We went around the American Republic, we went to some of the places in the African Union, mostly around Farafrah, we visited Australia, and one or two places that had been hit hard in Europe," Thorne said, counting off his fingers.

"Did you see anything interesting? Have you been showing Cress new things? Is she having fun?" Cinder questioned.

"Oh yeah. I took her to see Vegas, so a big city type of place. We went to the beach for a day or two. She loved the ocean. I'm even teaching her how to swim! She really wants to see a forest or somewhere with a lot of trees, so I'm thinking of heading over to South America soon. They have a few places that have been hit pretty badly and could use the antidote as well. Oh, and she saw a waterfall. It wasn't one of the huge ones, but she seemed pretty amazed," Thorne finished slightly dreamily, as if his head was somewhere else, probably lost in the memories.

"What are these things?" Cinder asked Thorne, snapping him out of his reverie. Pinched between her fingers was what seemed to be a cracker with some dip and something gooey and pink piled on top. It was finished with something leafy and some red powder. Cinder sniffed it suspiciously and made a face.

"Oh come on, how bad can it be?" Thorne asked unconcerned. He took one and popped it in his mouth. He seemed to choke or something and his eyes started watering. "Okay, that was pretty bad," he stammered out, still spluttering.

At that, Cinder, who had started nibbling it quickly removed it from her mouth and discreetly dropped it in the little garbage bin at the end of the table. She walked down the table to where warm, golden bread sat braided into little wreaths. There were little birds, rabbits, and turtles. It looked good, but remembering the disgusting bread that she had eaten earlier and Thorne's mishap with the seemingly harmless cracker thing, she took a small bite.

"Thorne, come over here. This is really good!" she said in the direction of her friend as she shoved another piece in her mouth.

Thorne, who had suspiciously picked up a thin slice of some green vegetable with something bright orange on top of it, seemed more than happy to leave that table. His eyes widened as he beheld what was behind Cinder. He walked past her completely and just stared at the elaborate display of cakes, tarts, cookies, and other fancy desserts he could have only dreamed of. For a second, he only stared at the lavish arrangement, eyes wider than Cinder thought was possible.

"Why are you just standing there?" Cinder asked, snatching something from the table that looked like blackberries surrounded by a puffy crust. It was dusted with sugar and some other spice that looked suspiciously like cinnamon. "Stars, this is amazing. I need to go meet the chefs."

That seemed to break Thorne from his trance. He picked something up from the table. "Do you want one of these?" he said, raising his eyebrows. It was a small, red cupcake embellished with a dollop of white cream. It was topped with something chunky that could have been toasted nuts.

"That looks like red velvet." Cinder pursed her lips and shook her head. "I've always been a chocolate person. No, thank you."

"It probably isn't. It smells like cherry and mint? That can't be right." Thorne said raising an eyebrow as he sniffed.

"Why don't you try it and find out?" Cinder asked.

"Because I don't want to be the guinea pig this time," Thorne said firmly. "I am scarred after those disgusting crackers."

"And what if I said no?" Cinder raised her eyebrows. A challenge.

"Then," Thorne said, winking, "I would disregard your opinion." He lunged forward with the cupcake. Anticipating what he was about to do, Cinder opened her mouth just as the cupcake came toward her face. She quickly clamped down her mouth, securing the still-untasted cupcake as well as two of Thorne's fingers in her jaws.

"AGH! You maniac! You're not supposed to bite me!" Thorne shrieked. Twisting and writhing, he tried desperately to get his fingers out. Cinder gave him what would have been a smug smile.

"Fine, fine, you don't have to try it, I promise, you can just spit it out, just please let my fingers go!" he admitted defeat.

Satisfied, Cinder opened her mouth, then promptly spit the cupcake out into her hand. It was now squishy and deformed, and the frosting was melted. Thorne stared in disgust at the item in her hand, which was enough for her to keep it there for a few minutes longer.

"Throw it away!" Thorne said, shuddering.

"Why?"

"Because," he whined, "it's gross!"

"You're such a wimp," Cinder said, rolling her eyes.

"I am not a wimp!" he protested.

"That argument sounds weak, even to you," Cinder retorted. She saw his eyes flicker and knew she had hit home.

She grinned, taking another one of the cupcakes from the tray and splotching it on Thorne's forehead.

"Ah! Stars, Cinder, what on Earth? You've ruined my looks!"

"Serves you right," Cinder said self-righteously.

At that moment, Cress sidled up to the dessert table and stopped in shock as she took in Cinder and Thorne's faces.

"I won't even ask," she said finally, sighing. "Go clean yourself up, Carswell."

"Don't _Carswell_ me!" Thorne protested.

Cress gave him a look that had him mumbling and shuffling off. Once he was gone she turned to Cinder.

"Nice shot, but you should also go clean up. You are the guest of honor, after all," Cress told her.

Cinder sighed. "I should go keep Thorne company, anyway. After all, we both participated in it." Smiling apologetically at Cress, she slipped out of the hall before anyone of significant importance could notice and throw a tantrum.

Thorne was waiting out in the hall for her. "That wasn't quite so boring, now was it?" he asked with a laugh. They started to walk toward one of the many bathrooms.

"We probably shouldn't have," Cinder said, causing Thorne to sigh, "but that was so much more fun than this boring ball," she finished.

Thorne laughed. "I knew you had it in you to be fun, Cinder."

"Oh, don't even start," she said dangerously, but there was no real anger in her voice. "Let's remember who won the last round," she taunted.

"You cheated!" Thorne protested.

"You're just a sore loser," Cinder retorted.

Thorne shoved her lightly and she shoved back, laughing.

"But really, Thorne," Cinder cleared her throat awkwardly. "Thank you."

Thorne looked at her. Wrinkled his nose in confusion. "Okay... no idea why, but I'll take it. It's not every day I hear you say it," he laughed.

"And you'll never hear it again," Cinder muttered. "Thank you for making me feel better about everything."

"Anytime," Thorne smirked. "I adore annoying you."

"I regret everything I just said." Cinder sighed. "I guess I can't take it back now, can I?"

"No refunds, darling," Thorne shook his head.

"Keep it up and I'll put frosting in your hair."


	10. The Race

**Thanks to PennTheWriter-Is-Fucking-Magic and SpellCleaver for reviewing!**

 **PennTheWriter-Is-Fucking-Magic: Thank you so much! I hope you like this one!**

 **SpellCleaver: Thank you! I love writing Thinder so much, they're so amazing as best friends! And the descriptions of the ball were mostly by rowaelinfeyrhys, who really appreciated your words! I hope you like this one!**

 **This was… hard to write, to say the least. It came at the end of a long and tiring day, and I honestly didn't know if I would finish it. I wanted to write some Scarlet/Thorne BroTP, especially since I've been neglecting Scarlet for most of this series, and I love their interactions, so here we have a short, fluffy story featuring the whole Rampion crew. Props to AvocadoGoddess for encouraging me to write! If you haven't already, go check out her series of one-shots, Collecting The Stars! There's some really sweet stuff! I really hope you like this one, please review!**

* * *

 **Pairing: Scarlet x Thorne (BroTP)**

 **Theme: Non-Themed**

* * *

"Remind me how this is a good idea?" Cinder said, looking into the distance.

It was one of those golden days in Rieux, where it was sunny but not hot, with a very light breeze whipping through the area. Cinder was at Benoit Farms, along with the rest of the Rampion crew, just to have some fun. Of course, their idea of fun entailed the three pilots in their group, Scarlet, Thorne, and Jacin, have a podship race. Despite herself, though, Cinder was looking forward to it.

The three of them were already in their podships, and everyone was wearing headsets so that they could all communicate. Scarlet claimed it was for safety reasons, but everyone knew she just wanted to trash-talk Thorne. The rest of them were seated on a bench in Benoit Farms, and the three podships were a mile away, out of sight.

"It'll be fun!" Iko said. "Personally, I'm rooting for Scarlet, but I wouldn't mind if Jacin won." Thorne responded with a variety of cursing, causing everyone to laugh.

"You guys are going down!" Thorne said, pumping a fist emphatically.

"In your dreams, flyboy," Scarlet retorted, and Iko cheered.

Jacin, as usual, was not responding to any of this. Cinder could imagine him staring stoically ahead, preparing for the task to come. Winter, of course, was holding up a huge poster lettered with sparkly paint, saying _Team Jacin!_ The rest of the poster was covered in rainbows and hearts and other small, cute, Winter-ish drawings.

"Don't worry, Scarlet-friend," Winter had said, winking at her. "We both know who I'm really supporting." Scarlet had laughed, knowing that Winter was only saying that to make her feel better.

"Cress!" Thorne's voice came over the intercom sharply. "Why aren't you cheering for me?"

"I don't want to put my faith in a losing cause," Cress replied smoothly.

Cinder grinned at Cress. "I see I'm rubbing off on you." Cress grinned back at her.

"Hey! Cress, that's not very nice!" Thorne whined, sounding hurt.

"Don't worry, I still love you," Cress smiled.

"I love me too, Cress," Thorne said, causing Cinder and Iko to roll their eyes.

"Are you folks ever going to get started?" Cinder said.

"Just as soon as Thorne finishes his bragging and turns on his ship!" Scarlet exclaimed indignantly.

"Get it together, Carswell!" Cinder said, then turned to Iko. "Where are Kai and Wolf?"

"Fetching refreshments," Iko sighed. "As if I need to be reminded of what I can never have." Cinder and Cress patted Iko's arm sympathetically.

"I'm ready!" Thorne shouted, causing everyone to wince. "You're going down, Scarlet."

"You are so dead," was Scarlet's only reply. No one doubted her words.

Then, silence. A swooshing sound from the headset was Cinder's only indication that the competition had started.

* * *

"Scarlet is cheating!" Thorne complained.

Scarlet zoomed past Thorne with a maniacal grin on her face. Now, _this_ was life. Flying a podship _and_ getting to beat Thorne at something? It didn't get much better than this.

"You're just a sore loser," came Cinder's voice, which was then followed by loud shushing.

"Shush! Let me listen to their trash-talk!" Cress said, which promptly shut Cinder up. _Trash-talk._ They wanted trash talk? Oh, it was _on._

"Thorne is _awful!_ He's losing so badly! " Scarlet taunted, continuing to speed forward. Thorne pulled up to her, and she stuck her tongue out at him. _She was still ahead._

"I _am not_ losing!" Thorne retorted, speeding past Scarlet. She bit her tongue to stop herself from cursing, but made a vulgar gesture at his ship. She could tell he noticed it, though, because that smug grin on his face just grew. _Screw him._

She felt a surge of righteous anger. "If anyone is cheating, it's _you,_ Thorne!" Scarlet snapped.

"You want me to cheat?" Thorne said. She looked out of her window, and there he was, still wearing that self-satisfied smile, raising his eyebrows. "I'll show you cheating."

 _Oh, no._

Thorne's ship surged towards hers, making no attempts at stopping as it got closer and closer. Seeing what he was attempting to do, Scarlet turned her ship around at the last second and moved out of the way.

He wanted to play dirty? Fine. So would she.

Moving her speed up to full, Scarlet turned her podship to face Thorne's. She gave him a wicked grin as her ship charged towards his. There would be no stopping this.

She could see the horror in his eyes as he watched his impending doom coming. _Good._ At the last second, though, his expression changed to determination. He started to bring his ship forward to meet hers.

 _What?_

He was going _down,_ she thought, with a grim determination. She swerved ever so slightly as her ship neared his. He gasped and shrieked as his ship was bumped by hers, and shaken off course.

"Hey! Cress, Scarlet is cheating!" Thorne screeched indignantly.

Cress only laughed from the other end. "This is entertaining," she said.

 _Yes._ Satisfied, Scarlet turned her ship around towards the finish line and started to zoom forward again. Jacin was _ever_ so slightly ahead of her, but she could still beat him. She could still win.

And then she felt a huge _crash_ as something hit the back of her ship.

Startled, Scarlet turned around, refusing to let herself scream. Through the back window of her podship, she could see Thorne in his ship, which was plummeting to the ground. Even as his ship hit the ground, he was still wearing that cocky grin.

"Thorne! You idiot!" Scarlet yelled, as she grabbed the controls to try to prevent her ship from falling. It was too late, though. The ship was sinking faster than she could handle. Sighing, she just held onto the arm rests with all her strength, holding on for dear life as everything shook around her.

"Hey, if I have to sacrifice my ship, I might as well take yours out with it," Thorne replied.

"That is _not_ how it works, Carswell!" Cress screamed through the headset. "You both could have died!"

Her ship finally landed with a large _bump._ Letting out a breath she hadn't known she had been holding, she started to climb out of the ship. The door still opened. _Phew._

"Don't Carswell me, Cress, I'm fine!" Thorne said. "And so is Scarlet! Plus, I managed to stop her from winning, which _was_ the point, wasn't it?"

"Well, you didn't win, either, _Carswell,_ " Scarlet retorted furiously.

"Hey, uh, guys?" It was Kai. Scarlet tilted her head, surprised.

"Jacin won," Wolf finished. This was promptly cut off by a round of emphatic squealing. Winter, presumably.

"Of course he did," Thorne grumbled. "But we _all_ know who the better pilot is."

"Yes, we do," Scarlet said. "You know, I'm going to beat you in the rematch." She raised her eyebrows at him.

"No, I'm going to crush you into a pulp," Thorne replied, grinning.

"In your dreams," Scarlet snorted. Thorne was completely delusional.

* * *

Cress sighed, watching her friend and boyfriend argue like complete maniacs. The two of them were still standing around their slightly smoking ships, and were teasing and taunting each other with a variety of facial expressions and gestures.

Looking at them, no one would guess they were friends, but they were, and stars, she loved them.


	11. The Beast

**Thanks to TheStarsAndSky, rowaelinfeyrhys, and SpellCleaver for reviewing!**

 **TheStarsAndSky: Thank you! I love writing those two as well. :) Hope you like this one!**

 **rowaelinfeyrhys: Thank you so much! I tried my best to make it as competitive as possible, so I'm glad it came through! Hope you like this one!**

 **SpellCleaver: Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it, and I'm glad it seemed in character! Hope you like this one!**

 **This is... I don't know what this is, honestly. My initial idea for Fairy Tales was to write a Wolflet Beauty and the Beast AU, but when I started writing, it didn't quite work out like that. It's still a Wolflet Beauty and the Beast AU, based on the Disney movie, but Wolf isn't actually in it, so I guess it's Wolflet and CressWolf without the Wolf? I don't know. :| I was going to make some edits today, but that didn't quite work out, so here we are. Thanks to SpellCleaver for reassuring me that Scarlet and Cress weren't too OOC! Anyway, I hope you like it, and please review!**

* * *

 **Pairings: Wolflet, CressWolf**

 **Theme: Fairy Tales**

* * *

"Stop blaming yourself for this tragedy," Scarlet told herself firmly. "It is _his_ fault, through and through. Not mine."

It wasn't like she would have done anything differently. Going after her grand-mére, who had been kidnapped? Trading her own freedom for her grand-mére's? Insulting the vile beast? She would repeat all those actions with no hesitation.

But that didn't change her current plight, and the fact that she was now living with the beast for eternity. She had lost her freedom. She could feel the tears, threatening to pour out, but she refused to give in. _Stop it, Scarlet. You have to be strong._

Who _was_ this beast, anyway, and what did he think he was doing? What sort of a twisted being imprisoned people _in their own house_ for eternities? Yes, it was a rather nice prison, with a comfortable bed and bathroom and even a servant, but it was a prison nonetheless. The beast had called himself Wolf, but Scarlet suspected even the meanest wolf was kinder than him.

A knock on the door. She had no intention of getting up to open the door. She was drained of energy, of spirit, of everything. But she heard the creak of the door opening. "What do you want," she spat.

"I - just want to make sure everything is all right." Scarlet turned around to face the door, realizing that the voice did not belong to Wolf. A small blonde girl faced her, trembling. She looked to be about her age, maybe a few years younger than her. She looked… harmless, to say the least. So why was she working for Wolf?

"I'm Cress, Wolf's personal servant," the girl said, biting her lip. "Your wish is my command."

She didn't want anything from this girl, who willingly worked for a monster. She wanted nothing to do with these people. She wanted her farm and her grand-mére and her freedom back. But… an idea occurred to her.

"Answers. I want answers," Scarlet said.

"I - am not at full liberty to disclose everything, but I will do what I can," Cress said, closing the door. Scarlet patted the bed next to her. This _Cress_ seemed innocent enough. She probably wouldn't hurt her, so she might as well sit down.

"Why did Wolf want my grandmother?" Scarlet asked, skipping the small talk. _This_ was what was burning at her. Her grandmother didn't have secrets. She wasn't particularly wealthy. So either Wolf was a sadist for kidnapping her, or else… there was something else.

"He didn't," Cress replied. "He was just asking the questions. His master wanted her, or rather, some information that she had."

Well. That was interesting. "Who is this creep, and why did he want my grandmother?"

Cress gave her a half-smile. "Creep is right," she said. "It's actually a she. Wolf doesn't know why Queen Levana wants your grandmother."

"Queen Levana… holy shit," Scarlet cursed. If Levana, the infamous sorceress queen of France, wanted something, she usually got it. And her intentions were _never_ good.

Something else was bugging her. "You seem to hate Levana as much as I do. So why do you work for someone who works for her?"

"Why do you think I do?" Cress smiled sadly. "Most people who work for her don't have a choice. I was born with nothing. I had no way of resisting her. I guess you could say I'm a damsel in distress."

"Well, I'm sure someday a handsome rogue will rescue you, and you will sweep him off his feet," Scarlet said, without thinking. Surprisingly, she was starting to warm up to Cress. "You know, you're not bad for a servant of Levana's. You have…" She paused, trying to find the words.

"Hope," Cress said, smiling. "Wolf asks me why. It's all I have, though."

"Hope," Scarlet repeated. The word felt foreign to her at the moment. But, then again, she had only been imprisoned for five hours. Cress had been imprisoned for her whole life. Maybe, over time, there would be some hope for her. She gave Cress a real smile. She didn't know why, but she trusted her. Somehow.

"He's not bad, you know," Cress murmured.

"What?" Scarlet said. Surely she wasn't talking about _Wolf_.

"Wolf… is under an enchantment placed on him by Levana. Hence the wolf-like features… and the less-than-charming attitude. He is _forced_ into obedience, made to terrorize people."

She was stunned. It still didn't excuse what he had taken from her… but stars above, how many lives had Levana ruined?

"So did you know him before the enchantment?" she asked.

"What?"

"You said he wasn't bad. Did you know him before?"

"No, but I've seen him fight it. Underneath all the growling and wolf-like behavior, he… is just a child, like us."

She couldn't speak. A lump was welling up in her throat. "He hurt my grandmother. I didn't see him fight it then." She didn't want to believe that the monster who had taken everything away from her was not, in fact, a monster.

"He has good days and bad days. Like all of us," Cress said softly. "I spoke to him afterwards. He was… very remorseful. He wants to make it up to you, somehow."

"Tell him to set me free," Scarlet whispered, barely able to speak. Damn it, she was not going to start crying now.

Cress bit her lip. "He wants… he wants to ask you to have dinner with him."

"What!" Shocked, Scarlet pushed Cress off the bed. "Oh, sorry," she said. "But he doesn't honestly expect me to do that?"

"I don't know," Cress sighed, picking herself up. "We're all in a bit of a conundrum, you see. Wolf directly disobeyed Levana by letting your grandmother go. He was supposed to kill her. We don't know if and when Levana will find out, and how she will react."

"So why can't he set me free? It's my grandmother she's after," Scarlet said, confused. And where did dinner play into all of this?

"Your grandmother… did not give us the necessary information. Wolf is hoping you can give it to him. If not, well, your choices are the same as your grandmother's; death or house arrest. He would not dare disobey Levana again. Wolf thought you might prefer a pathetic life to no life at all, and maybe grow to enjoy our company."

She didn't want to go to dinner. She _didn't_. She wanted to storm out of this stupid castle and murder Levana as soon as she possibly could. Turning to Cress, she asked, "Does Wolf like Levana?"

"No, he despises her," Cress said, swinging her legs. "In many ways, Wolf is even more trapped than you or I, since it is his mind which is trapping him."

"I want to murder Levana," Scarlet said calmly, turning to Cress. "She has trapped and enslaved so many people. She forced another man to hurt my grand-mére, all for some stupid selfish reason of hers. She has taken everything, _everything_ away from me."

Cress smiled. "Scarlet, I know you will be heroic one day."

"Thanks," she laughed. She paused, imagining her own dagger in Levana's mutilated face, and smiled. Maybe there would be more to Wolf than she thought. The evil queen had ruined Wolf's life as well. Perhaps they could bond over that. Besides, she had nothing better to do, what with being imprisoned for life. "I… am probably going to regret this… but I'm going to dinner. With Wolf."

Cress' eyes lit up. "Oh, yes!" she said, jumping off the bed. "I'll go tell him so that he can get ready! I promise you, this evening will not disappoint!"

"Just so you know, I'm not changing, so tell Wolf not to show up in a tuxedo or something," Scarlet said. She was already beginning to regret her decision. This was going to be some evening.

"Got it!" Cress exclaimed, turning around to leave the room. She paused, looking Scarlet in the eye. "Scarlet. Don't be afraid of him, okay?"

"Not a problem," she smiled. "I might have many mixed feelings about Wolf right now, but I am not afraid." Yes, he was a beast. Yes, he could be cruel and monstrous at times. But to be afraid of him would go against everything she stood for. So she would not be cowed by him.

"Good luck!" Cress said, and walked out of the door.

She wasn't sure if she would need it, but whatever it was, she knew this evening would somehow change her life.


	12. The Movies

**Thanks to 1221bookworm for reviewing!**

 **1221bookworm: Thank you, thank you, thank you for your reviews! They were so kind and completely made my day! I hope you like this one!**

 **I'm very excited for you to read this one. :) I saw a headcanon like this on Tumblr, and I just couldn't get the idea out of my head. I've been planning for days, and I finally sat down and wrote it, and it turned out much better than I expected! As you can see from this, I am a _huge_ movie geek. ;) I hope you enjoy it, and please review!**

* * *

 **Pairing: Kai/Thorne (BroTP)**

 **Theme: Non-themed**

* * *

The first time it happened was a complete accident.

Kai had invited the crew over to stay at his house. After a long day of board games, food, and laughter, they had all retired to their beds.

Except Thorne couldn't sleep. Every time he closed his eyes, visions of Levana and stabbing Cress and death plagued him. So eventually, he just gave up. _What should I do next?_ he thought. After all, he was a complete mess when he was idle.

Then, a comment from an earlier conversation with Cinder occurred to him. _You've never watched the Avengers? Carswell! Even I've watched the Avengers, and I didn't have the opportunity to watch movies until two months ago!_

Maybe he knew how he was going to spend his night. But first, he had to ask Kai.

* * *

"Kai! Psst! Wake up!"

"Huh?" Blearily, Kai rolled around in his covers until he was finally facing Thorne. He opened one eye. "Oh, it's _you._ Thank goodness. Why are you waking me up at this hour?"

"I… couldn't sleep," Thorne shrugged, looking slightly sheepish. "Sorry to bother you."

"Do you need some tea or something?" Kai sat bolt upright in his bed and opened his eyes fully, suddenly burdened with the expectations of being a good host. Thorne rolled his eyes. It was _him_ , for crying out loud. Nothing about him was proper.

"No, I'm okay."

"Then what do you need?"

Thorne grimaced inwardly at how his next words were going to sound. "Listen, uh, Cinder made a comment today about how I've never watched The Avengers. Can -"

He was cut off by Kai clamping his hand on his shoulder. "You've never watched The Avengers?" he said, rather loudly. He could see his shock.

"Uh, yeah. I was wondering if -"

"Say no more, Captain. We're going to watch The Avengers, right now." Putting his feet on the floor, Kai hoisted himself out of bed, rather energetically for midnight.

"We? Are you sure?"

"Absolutely," Kai smiled. "I want to be there the first time you see The Avengers."

"Let's do this," Thorne grinned.

* * *

One hour, and several bags of popcorn later, Kai and Thorne had paused the movie and were heatedly arguing.

"Iron Man is better!" Thorne said adamantly.

"You're just saying that because both of you have monumental egos," Kai quipped. "Captain America is the superior leader, in every way. And you know it."

"Captain America is _ancient!_ " Thorne complained. "He's so boring! And besides, he's not even a captain!"

"Says you?" Kai replied, smirking.

"Hey! I am every bit a captain as he is!" Thorne said, indignant.

"I'm not even going to bother arguing with that," Kai rolled his eyes. "But think about it. Captain America doesn't have to _try_ for people to like him. People like him for who he is. Support like that on a superhero team is invaluable."

"Stop trying to logic me," Thorne said, throwing popcorn at Kai. "Iron Man _is_ better, and nothing you say will change my mind."

"Oh, so it's like that, huh?" Kai said, mouth twitching upwards. Then, he reached into his popcorn bowl, took a big handful, and threw it at Thorne, who let out a small shriek.

"Wow," he gasped. "Who would have known? Emperor Kaito can be improper?"

Kai nodded, laughing. "Your shriek is so feminine," he commented. "I'd love for Cinder to hear that."

Thorne pouted his lip, but didn't argue with him. "We've wasted enough time on Captain Useless," he replied. "Let's start the movie again."

The two of them continued like this all through the night, watching as many Marvel movies as they possibly could. When morning came, they didn't speak of it. But every time Cress or Iko mentioned the Avengers, they shared a secret smile.

* * *

The second time was also purely accidental, but this time it was Kai's fault.

The crew was spending the night on the Rampion. Kai didn't want to tell Thorne, but the place brought back as many bad memories as good ones, as well as a feeling of impending doom. So he couldn't sleep, and he was spending the night listening to Cinder's breathing, when Thorne walked into his room.

"Some privacy, please?" A hint of a smile.

"Dude, you're awake? You've ruined my plans!" Thorne looked mischievous, like Kai had caught him in the middle of something.

"Which were?" he prompted.

Thorne hesitated, but finally gave in. "I was going to prank Cinder," he said.

Kai raised his eyebrows. "How so?"

"I hadn't worked that part out yet," Thorne replied, causing Kai to snort. The two of them fell into an awkward silence.

"So, uh, you wanna watch a movie?" Kai asked casually.

Thorne shrugged. "Why not?" he said. "You up for some Star Wars? _"_

He looked down. "I haven't actually watched those," he said.

Thorne gasped audibly, causing Cinder to toss violently. "How have you watched The Avengers and never Star Wars?"

"I don't know," he shrugged. "I only watch movies on my date nights with Cinder, because they're like my nights off. I guess we haven't had very many date nights?"

"Okay," Thorne said very seriously. "It's time to bring your Star Wars education up to par. I think I have a few packs of popcorn in the pantry. I'll start popping them, and you can get comfy. After that, well, you'll be lucky enough to watch the movies with commentary from yours truly."

He tilted his head. "Should I be scared?"

* * *

"Dude, Han Solo is the _best_ ," Kai told his friend, inhaling another mouthful of popcorn.

"He reminds you of me, doesn't he?" Thorne said, munching on the popcorn. "Witty, charming, handsome, in possession of an awesome spaceship…"

"Self-centered, egotistical, overly flirty, moral-less," Kai finished, laughing.

"Hey! That is offensive! I have morals!" Thorne said, putting a hand to his chest.

"I find that hard to believe," Kai replied. "I will say, though, Luke can be so whiny sometimes."

"He can use the Force!" Thorne protested, but it sounded weak even to him.

"He kissed Leia," Kai replied. "Aren't they related or something?"

Thorne elbowed Kai, surprised. "How did you know?"

"I used the Force," Kai said simply, causing Thorne to burst out into laughter.

On the screen, Luke stood on one hand and attempted to lift rocks with the Force. Thorne rolled his eyes. "Even I can do better than that," he said.

"Let's see it," Kai challenged.

Pausing the movie, Thorne scrunched his eyes closed and extended his hand. He then began to make small, constricted movements with the hand, all the while grimacing.

"Not working," Kai said.

Filled with increasing desperation, Thorne's hand movements became wilder and less coordinated. His face was completely contorted and he was swinging his hand around wildly when he finally made contact with Kai's popcorn bowl and caused it to spill all over his lap.

"YES!" Thorne said, opening his eyes. "That, my friend, was a Jedi master at work!"

Kai just shook his head, replaying the movie.

Again, when morning came, they did not speak of it. But whenever Cinder, or Scarlet, or Iko said something about the Force, Kai would catch Thorne's eyes and grin, remembering the events of a night so long ago.

* * *

By the third time it happened, both of them were expecting it.

They were having another reunion, this time at Benoit farms. And while the girls, Wolf, and Jacin were content to go to bed after a hearty meal and several slices of Scarlet's lemon cake, Kai and Thorne were stalling. Both were hoping for another coincidence, another chance to maybe watch a movie. And eventually, everyone did end up going to sleep, except for them.

Thorne tilted his head. "Dude, let's do it." He smirked.

"Which movie?"

"Uh, well, Cress has been recommending one to me. It's called _The Princess Bride._ "

Kai frowned. "Uh, Thorne, that's a romance. A funny one, but still."

Thorne smiled sheepishly, then shrugged. "No one needs to know that, right?"

* * *

After the movie, Thorne turned to Kai. "My friend," he said. "Dost thou believe in the power of true love?"

"Absolutely, my friend. Cinder is my fair maiden, and I will always rescue her when need be."

"Inconceivable!" Thorne said, and the two of them looked at each other and burst out laughing.

"Who am I kidding, Cinder would be the one rescuing me," Kai snorted.

"You couldn't handle those Rodents Of Unusual Size by yourself?" Thorne raised his eyebrows. "Wimp."

"I am not!" Kai threw some popcorn at Thorne.

"Oh, I see my favorite gentleman is back to being improper," Thorne smirked, taking a large handful of popcorn and throwing it right back at Kai.

"And I see that _you_ still have no idea how to be proper," Kai replied, mouth twitching upward.

"I would argue with that, but not even I can make a case for myself there," Thorne admitted, shrugging.

They still didn't speak of their nightly respites. But Kai made it a point to throw food, and other items, at Thorne more often. After all, he didn't want Thorne thinking he was _proper._

* * *

It became a routine. Every time they got together for a reunion, Kai and Thorne would slip away around midnight, watch a movie, and throw popcorn at each other. They sampled all genres. Adventure movies, _Indiana Jones._ Rom coms, _When Harry Met Sally._ All out romances, _Titanic._ Horror movies, _It._ Westerns, _The Magnificent Seven._ Crime movies, _The Godfather._ Bollywood movies, _Three Idiots._ Musicals, _Grease._

They knew it was only a matter of time before they got caught, and yet, they didn't care. The memories they created would be worth every bit of ridiculing Cinder and Iko would do when they found out.

Tonight was one of those reunion nights, one and a half years after the revolution. They were in the Lunar palace. It was midnight, and Kai and Thorne were settling down to sample a new genre. They had been wanting to do this one for months, but hadn't had the courage to do it yet. But they were finally settling down to watch a Disney princess movie. Specifically, _Frozen._ They were watching the sing along version, but they were both armed with bowls of popcorn, lest the other started singing.

"Psst," Thorne said, "the best song is coming now."

"Let It Go?" Kai asked. Oddly enough, he was excited.

"Yeah, see Elsa climbing the mountain, with that mile long cape fluttering down? That's her cue to burst out into song!"

On screen, Elsa started to sing. For the first verse, Kai and Thorne hummed along, content to hear Idina Menzel's gorgeous vocals. But as the second verse started, they looked at each other expectantly, a mischievous glint in their eyes.

And then they started to sing.

 _It's funny how some distance, makes everything feel small! And the fears that once controlled me, can't get to me at all!_

It started out quietly enough. But as the song kept building up, Kai felt himself getting into it. His voice steadily grew. And when the second chorus came, he was belting out the words at the top of his lungs.

 _Let it go! Let it go! I am one with the wind and the sky!_

Grinning, he stood up on the couch, still holding his bowl of popcorn up to his chest. Thorne followed his cue. The two of them continued to sing, as loudly and obnoxiously as they could, and slowly started to add in equally obnoxious facial expressions to go with it.

 _My powers flurry through the air into the ground! My soul is spiraling in frozen fractals all around!_

Overcome by impulse, Kai threw his entire bowl of popcorn in Thorne's direction. Without missing a beat of the song, Thorne showered Kai in popcorn as well. The two of them set down their bowls of popcorn.

 _Let the storm rage on!_

They threw up their hands, both making huge Broadway stars with their bodies. Kai caught Thorne's eyes and grinned.

 _The cold never bothered me anyway._

"What the hell is going on here?"

* * *

They gasped.

The secret was out.

They looked ahead and saw a furious Cinder glaring at them. Apparently their singing had been loud enough to wake her up, so they hadn't heard her coming.

"I take full blame for all incidents over the past one and a half years," Thorne said, holding up a hand.

"No, no, that's not fair of you, we were equal partners in crime," Kai said, looking at Cinder.

Cinder frowned. "Hold up. This has been going on for _one and a half years?_ "

Thorne looked sheepishly at Kai, who gave him an embarrassed smile in return. "Uh, kind of?" Kai said awkwardly.

Cinder smirked. "Okay, you two. I'm going to wake up Iko, and then you are going to tell us _everything._ "

* * *

In the end, they were forced to reveal all the embarrassing details of each one of their escapades. But it didn't matter to them. It certainly didn't stop them from doing it again next reunion.

The movie? _High School Musical._

Needless to say, they belted out all the songs. And _lots_ of popcorn was thrown.


	13. The Dream

**Thanks to lovelunarchron, TwistedGreekNerd, SpellCleaver, and 1221bookworm for reviewing!**

 **lovelunarchron: Thank you so, so much! I'm so glad you enjoyed it, I had just as much fun writing it! Your words really made me smile. :)**

 **TwistedGreekNerd: Thank you so much! In case you can't tell, I don't have very much respect for Captain America, so that was one of my favorite things to write. And Kai and the tea was very spur-of-the-moment, but I'm glad you liked it!**

 **SpellCleaver: Thank you! I'm glad I could make you laugh! I hope you like this one!**

 **1221bookworm: Thank you so much! I loved writing improper Kai so, so much. :) I definitely would love to join them for their movie sessions, too!**

 **This is my take on Nightfall. When I first saw the prompt, I was reminded so, so much of another one of my favorites, A Court Of Mist And Fury. I figured I would throw a few tributes to that book in here. (There are a lot of famous quotes in here). A big message of ACOMAF is that everyone has internal struggles and demons that they have to work through. Thus, this rather angsty piece was born. Scarlet might seem a little bit OOC at times, but I wanted to make it clear that she, and Wolf, are still healing from all the ordeals they went through. I hope you enjoy it! Please review!**

 **Disclaimer: The characters, as always, belong to Marissa Meyer. ACOMAF quotes belong to Sarah J. Maas.**

* * *

 **Pairing: Wolflet**

 **Theme: Nonthemed**

* * *

It was another one of those nights.

They were survivors, Scarlet reminded herself. They were survivors, but that came with a price. And the nightmares had improved, hadn't they? They weren't quite as frequent as they had once been.

But Scarlet still found herself sorely missing the concept of sleep as she lay in the grass outside, taking deep breaths, looking at the stars. _It was over. She was not a prisoner anymore._ So why did she feel like she was slowly breaking? Maybe being a survivor wasn't all it was cut out to be.

She felt a large hand press on top of hers. Mouth twitching upward, she turned her head ever so slightly. Wolf. "Couldn't sleep?"

"Not without you," Wolf said, smiling back.

And despite everything, she had to smile. "Nightmares," she said, by way of explanation, and he nodded. He didn't push it, though. "What better place to go than out here, amongst the stars?"

Wolf shrugged, smiling. "Why count sheep or dollars when you can count stars?"

"Thorne would disagree," Scarlet said, grinning at the thought of her friend. Despite everything, she had gained a few good things. It still didn't make up for what she lost, though.

Wolf nodded seriously. The two of them fell into a silence, and Scarlet felt the weight of everything pressing against her. She squeezed Wolf's hand harder, but it didn't help. All she could think of was her grandmother, weak and dying, telling her to run. Over and over and over. She tried to distract herself, but her thoughts just switched to being imprisoned, alone, and helpless, in the Lunar prison, completely dependent on Winter. She felt tears prickling her eyes, and she turned to Wolf.

"What's wrong, my love?" Wolf said, cradling her face.

"I…" she started, the tears starting to pour down her face. "I…"

Wolf gripped her hand. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Yes. She did. "This… is going to sound so, so selfish," she choked out. She hesitated, but then went on. "Do you think it's worth it? Is everything we have now worth everything we lost?"

"Oh," Wolf mused, looking thoughtful. "Scar, I ask myself the same question every day."

 _Oh._ "Then… you know what it feels like?"

"Yes," Wolf said. "There… there are good days and hard days, for all of us. Even now. But Scarlet, we cannot let the hard days win."

Scarlet nodded, the words sounding in her head. "That… I wish," she sighed. "But Wolf, I feel like it's breaking me."

"Scarlet," he growled. "Look at me." She did so. She looked into those green eyes, that face, the person who was all she had left.

"You are one of the strongest people I have ever met. Only you can decide what breaks you."

And funnily enough, the words rang true. It was the way she had been brought up, the way she had lived for all her life. This was her decision to make. Did she want to drown in the memories and feelings and guilt? Or would she rather live fully, for the people that couldn't.

"Thank you," she sighed, turning to Wolf.

Wolf nodded, looking thoughtful. "Sometimes I feel like we've sacrificed everything for a foolish dream," he said, sighing. "I mean, we won the war, but for what? What do we have left, besides each other.

"It was worth it," Scarlet said, looking at Wolf determinedly. "It _was._ My grand-mére, your mother… they sacrificed themselves for a dream." She waved her hands at the stars. "They _wanted_ us to dream, Wolf. Life is made of dreams. The world will be saved and remade by dreamers."

"Huh," Wolf said. "I never thought of it that way, but it makes sense."

"We are living their dream, so they live on," Scarlet said thoughtfully. "Besides, they're not _really_ gone, are they? They're watching us right now."

"What?" Wolf asked.

"The stars," Scarlet said, smiling. "They're up there, watching over everything we say and do."

Wolf gulped, looking tender and vulnerable. Scarlet squeezed his hand.

"Then they know we didn't lose everything," Wolf said, looking at the stars. "Sure, we lost a lot. People who are important to us, and entire lifestyles. But we _did_ find each other, plus seven other wonderful friends!"

Scarlet nodded emphatically. "Don't tell Thorne we said that!" she added. "I'm sure you already know, but he doesn't need an ego boost."

"True," Wolf laughed. He put his head on her chest, and she smiled. The two of them lay there in contented silence for a few minutes. Scarlet felt herself starting to drift off. The world was losing its sharp edge, and everything felt so warm.

"To the stars that listen," Scarlet said sleepily, gripping Wolf's hand.

"To the stars that listen, and the dreams that are answered," Wolf answered. She smiled. The peace and ease she felt was temporary, as it all was. But she had to enjoy it. After all, that was what she was living for.

They slept through the night, unburdened by nightmares of any sort.


	14. The Festival

**Thanks to PennTheWriter-Is-Fucking-Magic, linithamonre77, rowaelinfeyrhys, JustARandomNerd, and SpellCleaver for reviewing!**

 **PennTheWriter-Is-Fucking-Magic: Thank you so, so much! Yeah, Iron Man's my fave as well… Tony is just the best. And I would have loved to do a piece like that for Cresswell or Jacinter, except I feel like it would have turned into a very different story, and, well, long story short, I'm glad I had ACOMAF quotes to work with for Wolflet. I hope you like this one!**

 **linithamonre77: Thank you so much! I'm so glad you enjoyed it, and that my writing was able to make you feel that way! Your words really made me smile! :) Hope you like this one!**

 **rowaelinfeyrhys: Thank you! I'm so glad you liked it! I had so much fun using as many ACOMAF references as possible. Hope you like this one!**

 **JustARandomNerd: Thank you! I'm glad you liked it, Thinder and Cresswell are my favorites. :) Hope you like this one!**

 **SpellCleaver: Thank you so, so much! I'm so glad you felt all those things… that's what I was going for, but I wasn't sure if it was good enough. :) I hope you like this one!**

 **This is an AU I did with rowaelinfeyrhys and AvocadoGoddess for Festival. Most of the world building was done by rowaelinfeyrhys, but I had a lot of fun collaborating with these two lovely people on this piece! It's extremely fluffy. :) Hope you like it! Please review! P.S. Fluffy Wolflet coming up tomorrow, preview on AvocadoGoddess' collection!**

* * *

 **Pairing: Wolflet**

 **Theme: Festival**

* * *

Scarlet leapt up from the bed. Her usually wild hair was now in a waterfall braid, with flowers inserted at random intervals, courtesy of her best friend Émilie. Stars, she hated sitting still. She grabbed her friend's hand and ran into her grandmother's room.

"Grand-mére, let's go!" she shouted, excited but impatient.

"Calm down. I need a minute," her grandmother told her, laughing at Scarlet's childlike impatience. "I'm glad to see that you still get this excited about the Harvest Festival even though you're 18," she said, as she slid small chandelier earrings into her earlobes. She took one last look at herself in the mirror, straightened her necklace, then turned a critical eye on Scarlet and her friend. Deeming them ready, she grabbed her purse and ushered the girls out of the house.

* * *

Scarlet _had_ helped with decorating, but even still, the scene laid before her surpassed her wildest expectations. Her eyes widened. There was a flattened grass area surrounded by baskets of brightly colored leaves. _Perfect for dancing._ Next to it, there were various areas set up with different games. There were barrels of water, potato sacks, and other odds and ends. Scarlet enjoyed all of them, but her favorite by far was a small but long area roped off as a shooting range. There was a target set up in front of the trees, away from the rest of the festival as to avoid any incidents. About a quarter mile away from their farmhouse, they had erected a tarp. Under it, there were tables that would soon be laden with food.

Right now, they were carrying out platters of cut vegetables, apples, and other fall harvest foods, and laying them down in their respective places on the tables. Dishes made of squash and pumpkin sat steaming, waiting to be consumed. Scarlet put down the apple pies she was holding and moved out of the way, as her grandmother and Émilie set down various cakes and pies. The table was still largely empty because most people hadn't contributed their food yet.

Every year, Scarlet's grandmother hosted the Harvest Festival in the fall, to celebrate the fall harvest. It was one of Scarlet's favorite days of the year. All the townspeople came, and they brought food from their own harvests. There was dancing, and games. Different townspeople were in charge of different games and it was a lot of fun. It was the most highly anticipated social event in their little town. Scarlet loved the festival more than anything. It was the one time a year she had fun decorating. She had scoured the forest for the brightest colored leaves, the prettiest tree branches, the last of the wildflowers, fallen acorns.

Scarlet looked around to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything, when her gaze landed on the dance area. _The speaker, of course!_ She ran inside and rolled out the big speaker which was exclusively used at the festival. She made sure it was on and then set up the playlist on her tablet.

After about twenty minutes of frenzied finalizations, the first people started trickling in. Scarlet enthusiastically greeted them, taking the plates that they carried and arranging it on the tables meant for food. People kept trickling in, shouting greetings to Scarlet, Michelle, and the others who had already arrived. This town was nothing if not punctual. She watched everyone socialize, and chatted with Émilie, who was commenting on everyone's dresses.

After a few minutes, Scarlet made an announcement that the opening dance was about to begin. All the girls between the ages of five and twenty five made their way to the stage as she started the music.

Scarlet had memorized the steps to this dance by the age of five, as had most of the other girls in the town. She smiled as she twirled and jumped, leading the other girls. By the end of the song, she was smiling from ear to ear, and she walked off the designated area. Neighbors hugged her, patted her on the back, and complimented her. Scarlet smiled and thanked them, but quickly made her way to a group of her friends that she saw a bit away. They greeted her enthusiastically and hugs were exchanged all around as they rapidly started talking in the way that only teenage girls could.

* * *

Wolf wandered around the large farm. He had just moved to the small town of Rieux with a group of boys from college and he had heard that there was a big festival today. The Harvest Festival. Initially, he wasn't going to go, but the rest of his group was going and he had been persuaded to go by them. He was surprised to find himself enjoying this festival, with all its colors and activities and general liveliness. There was something more wholesome about it than anything he had ever experienced.

He heard some announcement about an opening dance, so he wandered over to where most of the townspeople where milling about. Fast, upbeat music blared through a speaker set on one side of the makeshift stage. He looked at the stage itself and saw about ten girls performing a synchronised dance. They were clearly having fun, as they were smiling and laughing, along with the people standing around the stage watching them.

One girl in particular caught his eye. She was in front and seemed to be dancing with more enthusiasm than the rest. She had wild red hair which had been braided with white flowers. She was wearing tight brown pants and a red shirt. She was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.

As the dance ended, they all left the stage. His eyes followed her. She was chatting with everyone, seemingly comfortable with them. Then she made her way to group of girls of a similar age and rushed to them. They started talking rapidly and he pointedly looked away.

Some of the townspeople were at the dance area, which had apparently been opened up to everyone. Others meandered to the tables now bursting with food. He would check those out later. Still others went to different games, competitions, it seemed like.

He heard a couple of voices near him talking loudly about one of the competitions.

"Who do you think is going to participate in shooting this year?"

"Is that even a question? Scarlet, Michelle, and Gilles? Who else?"

"You never know… maybe this year will be the one for something new to happen…"

Shooting competition? That sounded interesting. He followed them slightly away from the dancing and the food. There, at the edge of the trees was a target, and a long, clear strip of dirt, supposedly where one was supposed to stand. He stood near it, and noticed that others were also gathering. It must be about to start, he concluded. Indeed, a young, well built man walked onto the strip of dirt and addressed the crowd.

"Hey, hey, hey! How are you all doing today?"

The crowd cheered, and Wolf found himself cheering along with them.

"My name is Gilles, and ladies and gentlemen, it's that time of the year! We are about to start the shooting competition. So far, we only have three competitors signed up. Scarlet, Michelle, and me," he announced. "Surprise, surprise," he added dryly. This earned a few chuckles from the assembled crowd. _They must participate every year._

"Would anyone else like to participate?" he asked. The crowd murmured, and another young man stepped out. Wolf groaned inwardly.

"I would like to participate," the man said.

"Wonderful. What's your name?"

"Ran," he said with a wicked grin.

"Well then Ran, since neither Scarlet nor Michelle are here yet, should we start?"

"Let's do this," Ran replied, a dangerous edge to his voice.

Gilles explained the rules briefly, then pulled out a gun, loaded it with some red bullets, and walked over to the marked spot. He put his arm up, aimed, and shot. He shot ten times. Then, Wolf's brother walked over, pulled out his own gun, loaded it with blue bullets that the man handed to him, and then shot ten. After he was done, they both walked over to the target to see who had won. Once they examined the target, they declared Ran the winner of that round. Wolf sighed, growling.

Just then, the same girl from before, the one with red hair, burst through the crowd.

"I'm here, I'm here," she said.

"Scarlet! Wonderful," Gilles said, beaming at her.

So her name must be Scarlet.

"This gentleman," he said gesturing towards Ran, "and I just finished a first round. He won." At this, Ran smiled smugly, and Wolf bared his teeth. "Where's your grandmother?" he asked her.

"She's helping someone with something. She'll be here soon. In the meantime, I can play against him. Then whoever wins can play against Grandma when she gets here," the girl, Scarlet, said. She sounded confident. Did she know how good Ran was?

"Sounds good," Ran told her.

"Great," she said, walking over to the target calmly. Gilles walked over with her. Together, they rolled it to the side and mounted another.

Scarlet gestured for Ran to go first, so he loaded another ten blue bullets and shot. Then Scarlet loaded a gun that Wolf hadn't noticed she'd been carrying, and stood at the line. Her eyebrows furrowed, and she frowned, concentrating. She shot.

As they both walked to the target, along with the man from before, he heard Ran say, "Try not to be too disappointed when I beat you," with an annoying swagger.

"We'll see," she said nonchalantly.

"I don't lose," Ran said challengingly, as if daring her to contradict him.

She simply replied, "Neither do I."

He watched the three confer and point to different spots on the target, before Ran stomped off, and the other man declared Scarlet the winner with a smile. No one in the audience seemed surprised. He hid a smile.

"Now, where is that grandmother of yours?" someone standing near Scarlet asked her.

"I don't know. I'm sure she'll be here soon though," Scarlet replied, unworried.

"Does anyone want to challenge Scarlet while we're waiting for Michelle?" the man asked.

Wolf didn't know why he did it, but he stepped forward, and said "I would love to try."

* * *

Scarlet startled when a large man stepped forward from the crowd and said that he would like to challenge her. He looked similar to the other man she had just challenged, and she wondered if they were related. They both had the same eyes. Gilles smiled and went to replace the target.

"What's your name?" Scarlet asked the man who had challenged her, in an effort to be polite like her grandmother had taught her. He was quite a bit taller than her, even though she was one of the tallest women in town. He was muscular and had messy dark hair. However, unlike the other man, Ran, he seemed rather shy. Interesting combination. Intimidating and shy.

"My name is Wolf," he told her, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Nice to meet you," she said, shaking his hand. It engulfed her own. "I'm Scarlet, as you probably know," she said, grinning. He nodded. She walked over to the table set up on the side and picked up ten red bullets, loading them. Looking over her shoulder, she said, "I assume you have a gun?"

At this, the man started. As if he hadn't realised that he would need a gun for a shooting competition. Scarlet had to stop herself from shaking her head and smiling.

"Actually, I don't carry one around," he told her. A faint blush colored his cheeks. "If I could borrow one…" he asked hopefully.

"Here, you can use mine," Gilles offered, having come up to them without Scarlet noticing.

The man, Wolf, accepted the gun with a bowed head, and wordlessly loaded it with the ten blue bullets. She gestured for him to shoot first.

He went to the line and stood for a moment, seemingly getting used to the weight of the gun, the wind, distance, and whatever else he was measuring. He shot with perfect form, and from what Scarlet could see, his bullets had landed very, very close to center.

But not quite on it. And that was what made the difference.

Scarlet went to the line and shot her ten, then gestured for Wolf and Gilles to follow her to the target. She studied it. She had won, but just barely. Usually she beat all the other townspeople, save her grandmother, by a large margin. This stranger was _good_.

"Wow," Scarlet said, looking at Wolf. "That was _good._ "

"Thanks," he said, shyly looking down. "You still beat me, though."

"Oh, don't take it personally, I beat everyone. Except Grand-mére," Scarlet said, laughing.

Surprisingly, Wolf didn't look offended. He looked like he was about to say something, but was cut off by a booming voice.

"And the winner of that match is… Scarlet Benoit!" Loud cheering ensued from the crowd. She grinned. These people had known her for all her life. Of course they would be partial.

"Well, congratulations again," Wolf said. Scarlet nodded, smiling, and he lumbered off into the crowd.

Her grandmother stepped out from the crowd where she had been watching the competition. She winked at Scarlet as both went to reload their guns.

"Who was he?" Michelle asked Scarlet.

"I don't know. He said he wanted to challenge me when Gilles asked. He must have just moved in, because no one seemed to know him," Scarlet told her truthfully.

"He was handsome," Michelle told Scarlet mischievously.

Scarlet rolled her eyes.

"What, don't you think so?" Michelle pushed.

"I probably won't even see him again," Scarlet told her, trying to end the awkward conversation.

"Wasn't what I was asking," she said with a smile. "So, what do you think?"

"I don't know. He seemed nice," Scarlet replied nonchalantly.

"If you say so," Michelle said, unconvinced.

"Let's get to the shooting, shall we?" Scarlet asked.

"Eager to lose again?" Michelle asked in a rare show of sass.

"Well, you never know," Scarlet said. "There's a first time for everything."

"Keep believing that."

The competition went as planned, and Michelle did beat Scarlet, but she didn't mind. After all the congratulations were recieved, Scarlet slipped her hand into Michelle's. She dragged her grandmother to the dance floor. "Come one, Grand-mére. Let's dance."

* * *

Wolf stared at the crowd, lost on what to do next.

The wining and dining was over already. He had enjoyed a very sumptuous meal, complete with warm bread, soup, pasta, and various desserts. To finish it off, he had sampled various dessert wines. Not enough to get drunk, but he was still feeling a little bit giddy.

Which was good, since the dancing was in full swing out on the field. Couples were dancing together to a slow song. Most were immersed in some form of kissing, but a few were merely swaying back and forth to the music and smiling at each other.

For example, Scarlet seemed to be dancing with her grandmother. He couldn't help but feel a twinge of regret at this. A small part of him had hoped that he would be able to dance with Scarlet.

The slow song ended, and another one started, this one very lively and upbeat. Scarlet cheered loudly, then started to make her way out of the dance area. _What was she doing?_ She seemed to be approaching him.

Wolf couldn't hide his shock when she stopped in front of him and grinned. "Come _on,_ Wolf, let's dance!" she said.

Wolf gaped, at a loss for words. "Me… and you?"

"Psh, don't be so _serious._ It'll be fun!" she said, extending a hand out.

Stunned, he could do nothing but nod and blush as Scarlet pulled him onto the dance floor. Once they were ensconced, Scarlet threw up her hands and started to dance. She grinned at him expectantly.

Hesitantly, Wolf started to let his body move along to the music. It was awkward at first, and he felt _extremely_ self-conscious. But after a while, he just started to slip into… a rhythm of sorts. The rest of the world just… faded away, save for Scarlet. He smiled. This was actually fun.

" _That's_ more like it," Scarlet said as the song ended. The next song, another upbeat one, started, and she cheered loudly again. Wolf found himself cheering along with her.

The two of them continued to dance. They had somehow made their way to the center of the field, and _everyone_ was watching them, but for some reason, he didn't care. Tonight, he had eyes only for the effervescent girl in front of him, more like an otherworldly being than a human like him.

"You having fun?" she said to him.

"More than I've ever had," he replied. It was true.

"Well then," she smiled, all at once uncharacteristically shy, "come back next year?"

Wolf blinked. "Of course," he grinned. "It's a date."


	15. The Winter

**Thanks to linithamonre77, JustARandomNerd, and 1221bookworm for reviewing!**

 **linithamonre77: Thank you so much! Wolflet isn't my favorite, either, but I still had so much fun writing this! Hope you like this one!**

 **JustARandomNerd: Thank you! I'm glad you liked it! I hope you like this one!**

 **1221bookworm: Thank you so much! I'm so glad they weren't too OOC… and those were ACOMAF quotes, I'm so glad you liked them! I love them with all my heart as well. I hope you like this one!**

 **This is a fluffy Wolflet piece I wrote with AvocadoGoddess. We both had short, fluffy ideas, and so we combined them, and lo and behold, we are now at just under 1000 words! I hope you like it!**

* * *

 **Pairing: Wolflet**

 **Theme: Non-themed**

* * *

Scarlet pulled up the recipe Émilie had sent her on her portscreen. _French beignets,_ she had told her, _you just can't go wrong with them_.

Scarlet had eaten them before, but never made them herself. Grand-mére, she recalled, had always been more of a cake person.

She handed the portscreen to a bemused Wolf, instructing, "Read."

Leaning against the counter, Wolf began to read the ingredients list out loud while Scarlet hunted through the cupboards.

"...and confectioners' sugar," he finished.

Triumphantly, Scarlet slapped the bag down on the counter a bit harder than she'd intended. A light dusting of sugar wafted through an opening.

Fascinated, Wolf leaned forward. "I've never seen sugar like that."

"It's much finer than granulated sugar," Scarlet told him. "We'll sprinkle some over the top. Now, could you read the steps aloud?"

Scarlet was in her element, moving as quickly as Wolf could read. Under her expert supervision, the eggs were beaten, the dough was kneaded, and the oil preheated to perfection.

The dough lay in a glass bowl, covered with a sheet of plastic wrap.

"Perfect," Scarlet proclaimed, satisfied at last.

"Now what?" asked Wolf.

"Now, we wait. Ready for some board games?"

* * *

One hour into their board game marathon, Wolf suddenly stood up and gasped.

"What is it?" Scarlet said, standing up quickly. Her hand automatically went to her hip, searching for her handgun, before she realized that it was on her dresser in her room.

"What is that?" Wolf said, pointing outside.

Scarlet looked outside, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. It had now started lightly snowing, and the otherwise barren land was draped with large coats of white. She winced inwardly. _That wouldn't be good for the farmland._

"What?" Scarlet asked, a quizzical expression on her face. "I don't see anything."

"That," Wolf said, pausing to find the right words, "the beautiful white mist falling from the sky."

Understanding dawned on her. "That's _snow,_ silly! You know, the cold frosty particles that fall down once every year?"

Wolf shook his head, confused. "I've never seen this. It wasn't on Luna, and it wasn't on Paris when I came here."

Scarlet just shook her head. "Well, you're seeing it now," she said.

"It's beautiful," Wolf murmured.

"It's a pain in the butt, that's what it is," she grumbled. "Completely ruins the land."

"You and your farming…" He shook his head. "Come on, Scarlet, live a little. It _is_ beautiful!"

"That it may be, but it doesn't stop it from being a pain in the butt. You should know this! Take Levana, for instance…"

Wolf looked positively affronted. "Levana is nothing like snow!"

"You sure?" Scarlet said. "She's cold, frosty, evil…"

" _Snow_ is not evil!" Wolf said, glaring.

"Someone's very defensive," Scarlet teased. "Surely you don't love snow more than you love me?"

"I'll show you how much I love you!" Wolf stormed outside, and Scarlet just stared, confused. Was he _really_ that mad?

He strode in confidently a few minutes later, trying to look innocent.

"What's up?" Scarlet said.

"Nothing…" He bit his lip.

"Ze'ev…"

A snowball hit her face.

She looked up to see Wolf grinning at her, his hand still wet. "That's how much I love you, Scar." He gave her a look filled with adoration. She grinned back at him from underneath her snow splattered face.

"Aww, I love you too," Scarlet said, starting to walk outside as well. "Next time, let's try to keep the snowball fighting outside, shall we?"

"Sorry," Wolf said, looking rather sheepish. He started to walk inside.

"I didn't mean it that way!" Scarlet exclaimed, grabbing Wolf's cuff and starting to drag him outside. "You didn't think the snowball fighting was over, did you?"

"I guess not…"

"I can't let you win!" They were fully outside now. Scarlet leaned down, scooped up a snowball, and threw it straight at Wolf's head.

"Ouch!" Wolf exclaimed. "That hurt!" Glaring, Wolf leaned down as well to scoop up a snowball.

"No, no, no. That won't do," Scarlet explained, grabbing Wolf's hand. "We need to get some distance from each other. Then we get twenty seconds to arm ourselves, and on the count of three, fire. There's a way to do these things, you know."

"You're just trying to win," Wolf said knowingly, pouting. "All these rules are in your advantage."

"Why do you think I like snowball fights so much?" She winked.

"Fine," Wolf surrendered. The two of them backed away from each other until they were a good fifteen feet away, then started to make their snowballs.

After twenty seconds, Scarlet screamed, "Three! Two! One! Fire!" Wolf grinned at her. It was _on._

They spent the next hour hurling snowballs at each other, trash-talking each other, and having fun. Eventually, the weather became unbearable, even for them. They entered the house dripping wet and shivering, but in high spirits.

"I _totally_ beat you!" Scarlet said. "I mean, look at you! You look like you were just in a blizzard!"

"I was," Wolf admitted. "I was in the Scarlet blizzard. But I survived, and I won."

"You can't beat a blizzard," Scarlet said, sticking out her tongue. "That just proves I won."

"Yes, you did," Wolf said, kissing her on the forehead.

* * *

"These are _amazing_ ," Scarlet inhaled the scent of powdered sugar and fried food. They were both slightly warmer than they had been previously, but were still freezing cold. The warm aromas coming off the beignets were enticing, though.

"All thanks to you," Wolf smiled, the beignets dwarfed by his large hands.

"Aww," Scarlet dotted his nose with sugar. "How sweet."

"Did you just make a pun?" Wolf asked incredulously.

"Shut up and eat your food," Scarlet laughed.

"Yes, ma'am," Wolf smiled, popping one into his mouth. "Aaaaahhhh," he said, letting the warmth spread through his body.

"We should thank Émilie for this recipe sometime," Scarlet mused.

"Later," Wolf told her. "Right now, we have food to eat."


	16. The Legacy

**Thanks to linithamonre77 for reviewing!**

 **linithamonre77: Thank you so much! I think I'm done with Cresswell, but these last few days should be all Kaider! I really hope you enjoy this one!**

 **This is my take on Legacy, it's incredibly cliched, but I had no other ideas for the prompt. It's just a short introspective story about Kai and Cinder, and remembrance. I hope you like it! Please review! And a side note: this is going to be the second to last in the series. I hope you've enjoyed these, I certainly have loved writing them, and thanks to everyone who reviewed thus far!**

 **Disclaimer: TLC belongs to Marissa Meyer.**

* * *

 **Pairing: Kaider**

 **Theme: Legacy**

* * *

Cinder never dreamed of having a legacy.

She knew her reality. She was an orphan _cyborg_ living in New Beijing. She would live for maybe another seventy years, continuing her work as a mechanic. But when she died, there would be nobody to remember her. No one could love someone like _her,_ no one would be friends with someone like her.

And for the most part, she was happy. She didn't want or need to be thinking about other people when she chose to do things. For the most part, this life meant she was out of the scrutiny of the public eye, and she liked that.

But a small part of her wished that there would be _someone_ to remember her, the cyborg mechanic of New Beijing, after she died. Someone to carry her memory on. There was no one, though. Peony would be long dead by then, and Iko… who knew what would happen to her. Besides, Adri would do whatever she could to stomp out her memory.

That's why, when she met Kai, her world turned upside down.

* * *

Kai knew he would have a legacy from the moment he was born.

After all, he was emperor of an entire nation. He would get remembered, one way or another. It was on _him_ to make sure he was remembered for the right things.

The lifestyle suited him, for the most part. He thrived under the spotlight… he had always been able to maintain a diplomatic, charming persona when confronted with people and the media. There was nothing more that he wanted to do than govern his country. He liked it.

As far as love went, Kai had always had to be careful. He always had to be wary of who he was entangling his legacy with, who he was entangling his _country's_ legacy with. Besides, the throngs of admirers he had were sometimes heartwarming. But they were also were of the things he liked least about his position, since he never knew _why_ they admired him.

But sometimes he wished… that he could just let his guard down. He wished someone would see him for who _he_ was, and like him for just that, and nothing else.

And when he met Cinder, he let himself hope.

Here was a girl with no legacy, no spotlight, _nothing._ She seemed to have nothing to lose, and everything to gain. But… she treated him like a human being, rather than the emperor of the Eastern Commonwealth. She saw _him._ And he began to see her for the brilliant, resourceful, kind person that she was.

They were nothing but themselves around each other. They were open, confiding… they didn't pretend to be anything they weren't, right?

Oh, he was _so_ wrong.

* * *

She felt the world crash around her as Kai saw her for who she was.

Cyborg. Lunar. Outcast. Freak.

And more than anything, she felt the reality of _everything_ settling in.

He had a legacy. She did not. _They_ would never be a reality.

She couldn't stop from wondering, though. How would he remember her? Would she always be a lying, manipulative Lunar to him? The thought sent a chill down her spine. Maybe she _would_ have a legacy, but not a good one.

It didn't matter, though. She was going to die, anyway.

So she put up no protest as they escorted her to her jail cell. She was already resigned to the fact that it was over. She just wished she could see Kai one last time, if only to apologize.

As she sat there, waiting for Death to claim her, Dr. Erland came to her instead.

And gave her the biggest legacy she could possibly dream of.

* * *

She didn't want it. At. All. There was no part of her that wanted to be Princess Selene. It felt like a burden, a chore.

Suddenly, the entire fate of the planet seemed to rest on her shoulders. It made no sense, of course. No one knew that she was Selene. Why would they believe it now?

But a small part of her was now resigned to the fact that _it was up to her._ She had been given this role. Now, she had to play it. And when it was over… well, she would just have to see.

And she had also been given an opportunity to escape. For the first time, she had a shot at freedom, however fleeting it might be. _That_ was really tempting to her. As someone who had been imprisoned all her life, she appreciated freedom more than anything.

Leaving the jail cell would mean accepting her identity. It would mean doing everything she possibly could to defeat Levana. But… someone had to do these things. And even if she wasn't the most _qualified_ for the job, she was all that was left.

She started to make her way to the cell of one Carswell Thorne.

* * *

He knew that one way or another, his legacy would be drastic.

He missed the Cinder he thought he had known, the funny, sarcastic, brave one. But now… it was all too complicated. Even if her intentions had not been bad, well, he had a country to run.

Stars above, of _course_ he had to be born at just the right time for a war with Luna. Of course. And now, Levana had all the advantages. The plague antidote. The killer army. He had no choice but to play her game, to ensure the safety of his people.

He just hoped he would be remembered well for it.

* * *

They were reunited. And suddenly, she felt like his equal.

Both of them had impossible expectations piled on their shoulders. He had to ensure the safety of the entire Planet Earth, while she was tasked with overthrowing Levana and reclaiming the throne.

But still… she felt inadequate, compared to him. Because she knew… he would be remembered fondly. He would make all the right decisions.

She didn't have the same faith in herself.

But when she told him everything… the bottom line was, he believed in her. He had the same faith in her that she had in him.

She knew it was misplaced, but it kept her going.

And somehow… she was getting used to the idea of having a legacy. She knew she would be remembered some day, either as the princess who overthrew Levana, or the princess who died trying.

She just wished they would remember her as Cinder, rather than Selene.

Kai told her, "They don't need a princess. They need a revolutionary."

 _Revolutionary._

Cinder was a revolutionary. Selene was not.

Suddenly, she knew exactly what she wanted her legacy to be.

* * *

He never dreamed everyone would survive.

It happened. Scarlet, Wolf, Cress, Thorne, Winter, Jacin, Iko… Cinder.

Cinder had survived. She had won. She was a hero.

Yet his empire still didn't trust her, entirely. He supposed he understood where they were coming from. After all, it had taken _him_ a long time to trust her again, and he had actually spoken to her.

Still… no one could deny that she was a hero, and he was happy for that. Maybe they would have a chance.

He couldn't have been prouder of her. There was no one he wanted more to share his legacy with him, no one he trusted more to be a part of his country's future. There was no one who deserved it more.

* * *

Lying there, in the stars, with Kai, she remembered the events of two years ago. She remembered holding her cyborg foot and letting it go, severing ties with most of her past.

Accepting her legacy.

She never dreamed it would happen this way, that it would all go well, that she would actually _succeed_ in becoming a revolutionary. That she would be remembered as a hero. She never dreamed that she would actually _like_ having a legacy, but stars above, she did.

And now that she was a hero… well, the spotlight was always on her. It was annoying, but manageable. Definitely manageable. With friends like the ones she had, she scarcely was bothered by it at all.

When he proposed to her, she didn't hesitate. She accepted.

She loved him. She loved everything about him. Sure, his life would be rather trying for her. But after everything that happened, it didn't seem so bad anymore. She was willing to give it a try.

She would be a part of his legacy.

Everyone would remember them for eternity.


	17. The Park

**Thanks to linithamonre77, JustARandomNerd, and 1221bookworm for reviewing!**

 **linithamonre77: Aahhhh, thank you so much! I'm glad I made you feel that way! Thank you for being such a kind and supportive reviewer, and I hope you like this one!**

 **JustARandomNerd: THANK YOU! Your review absolutely made my day! Thank you for being such a great reviewer! Hope you like this one!**

 **1221bookworm: Thank you so, so much! Your words mean so much to me! Thank you for taking the time to review every single chapter, it makes me smile every single time. I hope you like this one!**

 **Hi everyone! This is the last one shot in the series, it's for Reunion! I was kind of pressed for time on this one, so it's not very well proofread. Still, it is something, and it is Kaider, and it is fluffy, and I hope you like it! I definitely enjoyed writing it, I collaborated with rowaelinfeyrhys again. :) A million thank yous to everyone who has reviewed, favorited, followed, liked, or reblogged, and to everyone who does so in the future! It has been my absolute pleasure writing for TLC Ship Weeks these past three weeks! Please review!**

 **P.S. I might post a few other WIPS I wasn't quite able to finish in time in this series, it'll probably be more Wolflet and Kaider, and maybe some Winlet (BroTP) since I wasn't able to do as much of those as I wanted to. (There's all too much Cresswell and Thinder in these, because I am total trash for them. XD) But those probably won't be coming for a few weeks. Still, stay tuned!**

 **Disclaimer: TLC belongs to Marissa Meyer.**

* * *

 **Pairing: Kaider**

 **Theme: Reunion**

* * *

Cinder stormed out of her apartment, barely remembering to lock the door behind her. She let her feet carry her where they would and when she looked up, she found herself in the local park she frequented. She took a few deep breaths letting her rage out, looking at the sky. Breathe.

She had just gotten off the phone with Pearl, who had been a bitch, as usual. The usual taunting, flaunting her new possessions, and goading her into saying something she would regret… she hated that Pearl had this power over her. She hated it.

She sighed and walked slowly over to her favorite tree that leaned over the lake. Grabbing the first branch that was just within reach, she pulled herself into the tree and perched on the highest branch she could get without falling out of the tree. Despite herself, she smiled at the view. She could see everyone from where she was.

"Hey," came a voice, from much closer than she expected.

Cinder almost fell out of the tree. When she recovered, she grabbed a branch and looked down to see who it was. She saw a dark head of hair, followed by a face with stunning brown eyes.

A man, about her age, smiled at her, and then pulled himself up into the tree. She stared at him as if an alien had just come to sit in the tree and announced that he would like to infest the human population with evil parasites.

The man noticed her staring. He coughed nervously and rubbed the back of neck, looking uncomfortable.

"Why are you here?" she asked bluntly, bordering on rudely if she was being honest.

"Because I like sitting in trees," he said, as if he was trying to be funny. Cinder almost rolled her eyes.

"I'm not in the mood for bullshit right now. Why are you here?" she asked sternly, then added, "And who are you?"

He grinned, color flooding to his cheeks. "I'm here because I saw you storm into park and then climb the tree and honestly, I'm intrigued. I don't know what possessed me to be here, but I'm here to try and make you feel better. And I'm Kaito Huang, you can call me Kai," he said, sticking out his hand.

She raised an eyebrow, ignoring the hand. He awkwardly put it down when she didn't shake it.

"And what made you think that you could be here, or that you could make me feel better, or that I even want someone to try and make me feel better? Maybe I like storming into parks and climbing up trees. In fact, I make it a point to get extremely angry once a month, storm into the park, and throw pinecones at ducks," she said dryly. It came out a little bit more venomous than she had intended, but she didn't care. She was feeling rather venomous.

His lips twitched but he didn't laugh, instead saying "Point taken."

They sat in silence for about a minute before the boy started climbing down from the tree.

"Where are you going?" Cinder asked, startled.

"I thought you wanted me to go away," the boy, Kai, started climbing down.

"Not an answer," Cinder told him. "Also, you don't seem like the type of person to give up so easily."

Kai raised an eyebrow at her declaration and Cinder almost blushed at the insinuation.

"Are you saying you want me here?" he asked. "I can… stay, if you want."

"Sure," she murmured. She quickly bit her tongue. What was she saying?

"Would you like some food?" he asked her, pulling out something from his pocket.

She raised her eyebrows. "What is it?"

"It's a warm cookie," he smiled. "The best kind. I thought it might lift your spirits."

"I'd love some," Cinder said, grinning. She accepted the warm object Kai placed in her hand, and bit into it. Stars. It was so, so good. There were no words for it.

"Spirits lifted," she said, turning to him. The two of them looked at each other, and then grinned. Despite herself, she was liking this Kai. She was feeling significantly better.

"I… should go," Kai said, awkwardly. "I'll leave you to yourself, anyway. That's what you want, right?"

She shrugged, not wanting to admit how much she was enjoying his company, and how her heart melted a little bit every time he smiled at her.

"I hope I see you again, someday," he said, holding out a hand to her. She accepted it and shook it.

"Me, too," she found herself saying.

"Until our reunion," he said, and she nodded.

She watched him climb down the tree, and walk about ten feet out from its base.

"Wait," he said, walking back to the base of the tree. "What's your name?"

Cinder laughed, genuinely laughed. "My name is Cinder."

"Bye, Cinder," Kai said, walking away again. From where she was, she could see everything he was doing. Not that she really cared…

But wait… what was he doing now? He seemed to be surrounded by a throng of giggling girls. And… he was laughing with them, humoring them… he seemed to be having a good time.

Was he flirting with them?

Stars. He thought she was just another innocent girl for him to dupe, didn't he? He had tried to charm her, with no actual feelings for her.

Stupid playboys.

And worse yet, Cinder had almost fallen for it. She had found herself enjoying his easy smile and 'genuine' manner, for those few minutes. It made her skin crawl just thinking about it.

Rage welled up inside her, even more than was already there. How dare he? She was not another brainless girl for him to woo with false words and promises. She would not be seduced.

She… she needed to leave this park, right now. She couldn't stand one more minute of watching him flirt with all the girls.

Cinder lowered herself from the tree, in an even worse mood than before, and stormed out in a fury.

She looked back, one last time. Though he was still laughing and chatting with the girls, it almost looked like Kai was watching her.

No matter. She was leaving. She would not give him a second thought.

* * *

"So how's my favorite princess doing?" Thorne asked, smirking at her in that irritating way of his.

It had been five years since what Cinder liked to think of as the park incident. She and her best friend Thorne were having lunch together at their favorite coffee shop. It had been years since she had seen him, and and stars, she had missed his obnoxious face.

"Stars, Carswell, I see you for five minutes and you already start up with the nicknames? Can't I get a break?" She held up her hands.

"Hey, you have no right to speak. You just Carswelled me."

Cinder shrugged. "Fair enough." Despite herself, she smiled.

"So how are you doing?" Thorne asked her.

"Eh," Cinder replied. "Well enough. Missing you, of course, and starved of any real company, really. Iko only visits once a month."

"Shame on her!" Thorne said.

"Says you?" Cinder raised her eyebrows. "I haven't seen you in years."

Thorne just shook his head. "Hey, at least I make it a point to gif-spam you once a week."

"Which only wastes my data." She shook her head. "Anyway, how are you doing? Have you found a reputable job yet?"

"I'm just peachy, thank you for asking," Thorne said, flashing a smile at her. "And no, I haven't found a 'reputable' job yet, but I'm working on it." He rolled his eyes.

"You're working on it?" Cinder raised her eyebrows. "What prompted you to do that?"

Thorne turned pink and did not respond.

Cinder grinned wickedly. It was her turn to be Iko.

"You luuurve someone, don't you?" she said teasingly.

"No!" he replied, a little bit too quickly. "Other than myself, that is."

"You're not fooling me," she replied. "Come on, Carswell, who's the poor girl?"

Thorne shook his head violently. "I'm telling you, there isn't anyone!" he exclaimed. "Come on, Cinder, you know me, I'm not good at staying with girls for more than a day!"

She just raised her eyebrows. "Captain Thorne just admitted he wasn't good at something? That's a first."

"Fine," Thorne sighed, looking down. "Her name is Cress. She's… a real sweetheart. You'd like her." He looked at her awkwardly.

"And?" she prompted.

"And what?" he asked, feigning confusion.

"You know!" she hissed.

He sighed again, shaking his head. "Yes, Cinder, we're together. We've been together for a month."

Well, that she had not expected.

She let out a squeal worthy of Iko. "I am so proud of you!" she said, getting up from the table. She was happy for him. After all those years of never feeling like he was good enough from his parents, she was glad someone finally saw him for the amazing person he was.

A small part of her wished she could find the same happiness, but that was a different matter.

Thorne got up from the table, a giddy smile on his face. "Thanks," he laughed. "To be honest, I don't know how it happened."

Cinder pulled Thorne into a hug, squeezing her friend close. "Oh, Thorne, you deserve it!" she whispered into his ear.

"Yes, I do," Thorne replied, winking.

Someone else behind them cleared their throat. Curious, Cinder turned around to see who it was.

Oh, no.

It was the jerk from the park incident five years ago. Her temper flared just thinking about him.

"What do you want?" she asked, glaring at him.

* * *

Kai walked into the coffee shop, which he frequented since it was close to his work. He walked up to the counter, smiled at the barista who he recognized, and ordered his usual sandwich and tea. He turned around and sighed. It had been a particularly stressful day and he was looking forward to his lunch break. He scanned the coffee shop to see where he wanted to sit. He recognized many of the regulars and when they saw him looking, they waved.

But there, in the corner, sat a young couple, laughing and talking over who knew what. The guy seemed like your average movie-star heartthrob, but the girl, she was attractive in an unusual way. She looked familiar…

And then, it hit him.

Stars above.

With a start, he realized that it was the girl from the park five years ago. The one who had flitted into his mind at the most inopportune moments over the last few years. His heart leapt at the prospect

At this, he studied her date closer. They were on a lunch date, and everyone knew that lunch dates weren't serious. What was he thinking? All those sitcoms had rotted his brain. But she was laughing, seeming like she was having a fabulous time. Oh, now so was he.

He didn't know where this jealousy was coming from, it certainly wasn't warranted. Nothing had happened five years ago, and their conversation had been unwanted by her in every world. There was absolutely no reason he should be feeling like this. Nevertheless, he was.

Cursing his emotions as he had a million times before, he decided to go say hi. It was just an added benefit that it would interrupt their cozy little date, some small part of him said. He quickly shoved out those thoughts. Where had this mean, petty part of his brain come from?

Steeling himself, he strode over. His eyes widened when she squealed, jumped up, and ran around the table to hug the other man.

Wonderful, just wonderful.

This doesn't change anything, he told himself. You knew they were on a date. You're just going over to say hi to someone you recognize, he reasoned to himself. Someone you have a crush on, the unhelpful part of his mind whispered to him. Just as long as they didn't start kissing. He would be fine as long as they didn't start kissing.

The girl, Cinder, hadn't noticed him yet, so he cleared his throat. They jumped apart, as if embarrassed to be caught hugging. Although maybe that was just his take on it. Cinder's eye's fell on him, and he saw the exact moment that she recognised him. Her face fell a bit and she seemed either disappointed or disgusted. A bit of his heart twisted in on itself as a burning pain consumed him. Internally rolling his eyes at his recently increased dramatism, he dismissed such thoughts and tried to be his diplomatic, charismatic, charming self.

"What do you want?" she spat out at him. Probably bitter about being interrupted on her date.

"I just wanted to say hi. I'm Kai, from the park. Five years ago?" he said unsure. Good going Kai, he told himself sarcastically. Charismatic and charming.

"I remember you," she said venomously. He took a step back at the tone, trying not to let his hurt show on his face. He had been perfectly polite to her back then. What did she have against him?

"I'm sorry for interrupting your date. I'll go now," he got out awkwardly, slowly stepping away.

The other man, Cinder's date, snorted loudly, but not rudely.

"Cinder, he… he thought we were on a date," he gasped, uncontrollable laughs shaking his body.

Even Cinder had a small smile on her face. Kai was royally confused.

"Aren't you her boyfriend?" Kai asked the man, unsure now.

The man laughed harder than she thought was possible, almost to the point that tears were coming out of his eyes. He grabbed onto Cinder for support, and while she didn't look pleased about it, she didn't look too annoyed. Her mouth was twitching as though she was trying hard not to laugh.

"He… he… thought I was your… your… boyfriend," the man choked out, still laughing uncontrollably. "Wait till Iko hears about this. Kai, was it?" he asked, finally recovering, but still chuckling once in a while.

Kai was completely and utterly confused. Cinder decided to spare him and explain.

"We're not a couple and we're not on a date," she started, still grinning. "Thorne is one of my best friends and we're having lunch together to catch up after years," she told him. "Besides, Thorne is dating someone. So, the conclusions you drew were completely wrong."

"I'm so sorry. It just looked like… with the hug… and lunch… I'm sorry." Kai stammered. So much for charismatic and charming.

"Ok, well now that we got that cleared up, I'm going to head out now, I'll see you again for dinner. Have fun talking to your boyfriend, Cinder," he said, hugging her one more time. "You didn't tell me or Iko about him. I'll call you soon. I expect Iko will be wanting to hear all about this," he whispered, although it was loud enough that Kai heard.

Thorne winked and gathered his coat as Cinder snapped, "He is not my boyfriend."

Kai felt a spike of sorrow at the statement. And jealousy that Thorne was so close to her. Stop it, he chided himself. You're getting an opportunity to talk to her. Don't screw up.

He didn't know what he was going to say. For the first time ever, charisma and charm were failing him. He decided to try a different approach. Looking at her, the first words that tumbled out of his mouth were, "Why do you hate me so much?"

Whoops. That had been a little bit too harsh.

"Why do you think?" Cinder spat.

Kai shrugged, at a complete loss. It had been a genuine question. Cinder raised her eyebrows.

"Fine. Since you're so thick, I'll have to spell it out for you," Cinder said. "You climbed into that tree with me. You were charming, you were kind, and you fooled me into believing you had feelings for me. I was maybe even starting to develop feelings for you. And then, the moment you get off the tree, you start flirting with every girl within one mile of you. So forgive me if I feel manipulated."

He gaped at her. Of all the reasons, that was why she hated him? He started to splutter, at a loss for words. He felt his heart sink in his chest, all hope going away.

"Go ahead, defend yourself. It won't change my opinion," she snapped.

"I wasn't flirting with them!" he said incredulously. "I wouldn't flirt with random people I don't know! They came to flirt with me, and I was trying to deflect them in the nicest way possible!"

The anger faded from her face, and was replaced with confusion. "It certainly looked like you were flirting with them…"

Kai put his hand on his heart. "I wasn't," he said. "That's the honest truth."

Slowly, acceptance filled her features. She gave a slow nod.

"I'm… sorry," she said, somewhat grudgingly.

"Me, too," he replied.

"What for?" Her mouth twitched upward.

"For assuming you were dating Thorne," he said. "It was stupid. I've been watching way too many sitcoms."

Cinder looked at him, raising his eyebrows. "You watch sitcoms?"

"Who doesn't?" He grinned. He felt giddy, like his heart was floating up, up, and up.

"True," Cinder laughed.

She walked back over to her seat and was about to take another bite of her soup when she paused and put the spoon down. "Don't you want to sit down?" she asked him, noticing that he was still standing.

"Sure, that would be great," Kai said, taking a seat. The barista came over, set down Kai's food, gave him a smile that bordered on flirty, and left.

Kai looked over to Cinder as he tried to fight his grimace and found her trying not to laugh. Small giggling sounds were still getting through her otherwise stoic demeanor. He smiled at the adorable face she was making. She seemed to notice and her smile faded.

"So…" Cinder started, awkwardly trailing off into silence.

"So. Tell me about yourself," Kai said.

"What do you want to know?" Cinder asked wearily.

"I don't know. I just want to get to know you."

"Why?"

"As I said that first evening, I find you intriguing."

Cinder seemed skeptical. After about a minute of searching his face, she seemed to decide that he was not teasing and that he was, in fact, interested in her. Then she blushed. Kai nearly sighed in relief to be out of her critical gaze.

"So, hobbies, friends, job…" Kai pushed.

"Not fair," Cinder said so matter-of-factly that it took Kai a minute to register what she had said.

"What's not fair?" he asked incredulously.

"That I have to tell you all about my life, but I don't get to find out about yours," Cinder told him.

"Good point. How about a question for a question?" Kai suggested.

"Fine. But I don't have to answer if I don't want to. Neither do you, I guess."

"Ok, do you want to start?"

"No, you came up with the idea, you go first."

"Ok… Um… What do you do?" Kai asked lamely.

"Well, I eat, drink, sleep, read, and do other stuff I don't want to specify right now," Cinder said with a smirk.

Kai gave her a look.

"Fine, I'm a mechanic." Cinder said with a sigh. "So boring," she muttered with a sly smile.

"Mechanic, huh? Where do you work?"

He shook his head. "It's my turn to ask a question."

"Ask away then."

"Fine. Umm. What do you do?" Cinder asked, lacking inspiration. "And I mean regarding your job," Cinder added when Kai opened his mouth.

"Who's boring now?" Kai asked. Cinder gave him a look.

"Fine. I'm the CEO of Rikan Corps," Kai said, trailing off. He mumbled the last part so softly that she barely heard. She did however, and she gasped.

"You're, you're that Kaito Huang. The.. the.." she trailed off, dumbfounded.

He sighed. Now she'd start treating him like a CEO of a huge multi-million dollar corporation.

"Huh. So now I can claim that I had lunch with Kaito Huang," Cinder said, looking very pleased with herself.

Kai nearly laughed in relief. She still saw him. Just him and not a CEO.

And so they sat in the coffee shop, talking and laughing, and looking for all the world like a couple.

They had been talking for a long time now, and Cinder found that she was quite enjoying herself. They had discussed hobbies, dreams, even some very personal facts, things that Cinder hadn't thought that she would ever share with anyone. But she felt comfortable talking to him for some reason.

After a particularly vicious bout of laughter, Cinder startled when her eyes landed on her simple wristwatch adorning her wrist.

"Oh my goodness. It's been two hours," Cinder exclaimed, hurridley trying to clean up her food and grab her jacket.

"Wow, it doesn't feel like it's been two hours," Kai said, gathering his things.

"Well, it's been really nice talking to you," Cinder said genuinely.

"Yeah, you too. I had fun," Kai said, suddenly awkward.

The two of them looked at each other shyly, and then she started to make her way out of the coffee shop.

"Sorry, I should… really be going," she said. "Thorne is coming over for dinner, and I won't get any work done with him, so I need to do it all now." He could see her hesitation, but… she chose to confide in him, no matter how small it was. That made him very happy.

"Okay," he said, starting to exit the coffee shop as well. "I… should go as well."

* * *

For some reason, she was saddened at the prospect of leaving him.

It was likely she would never see him again. And… well, she felt like an idiot for assuming the worst in him. He was actually kind of sweet.

She didn't know what made her do it, but she turned to him. "Hey, uh… do you want to come to my house some time? And maybe watch some Seinfeld? And other sitcoms?"

"Yeah… yeah," he replied, looking shocked. "I would love to. You know… Seinfeld is my favorite as well."

"High-five!" she said, rather energetically throwing up her hand. He returned it.

"Okay, uh… I'll give you my number." Kai pulled a pen out of his pocket, and beckoned Cinder to hold out her hand. Once she did so, he scrawled his number on her hand.

"Looking forward to it," she said, uncharacteristically shyly, heart fluttering as his skin touched hers. "Hopefully it'll be a better reunion than this one."

"Yeah," Kai laughed. "No stupid misunderstandings in the future?"

"It's a promise," she said, smiling.

It felt true to her. There was no going back now with Kai, only moving forward.

For some reason, she liked that.


End file.
